Dell sells Ubuntu pc's that cannot run Ubuntu

PogMoThoin

In short, I bought a computer that, in theory can run Ubuntu, and it turns out that, in practice, it can only run a distorted and old version of the operating system.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, said, not a long time ago, that, in a few years, Ubuntu will be better than Mac OS X. But Apple customers buy computers that work, computers that, in general, can be upgraded and that have no issues with the versions of the OS. One can use Leopard on a MacBook or a MacBook Air, however, I bought an Ubuntu computer that cannot run Ubuntu!

Read this guys experience

velocirafter

what exactly wont work, it seems like a pretty vague complaint

Orion

I agree. There obviously are drivers for this display which seems to be his main issue. If Dell have drivers in their own repo he should be able to use them on the standard Ubuntu install - Dell may have customised Bunty but it will still be based on the same code.

velocirafter

the reasons macs can be upgraded is because the hardware is standardised, os drivers only need to be created for a couple of different hardware models, for ubuntu to compete with windows in the open pc market then it needs to support hundreds of different pieces of hardware

watty

You can't legally install OS X on a PC Apple didn't sell. Makes it so easy for Apple you wonder why they have so many bugs.

Capt'n Midnight

Would that guy have been happier if he had been a windows user who bought a "Vista Ready" PC with all the crap* on it.

And yes Dell used to ship dodgy window driver configs in the past, so it's more of a config validation issue rather than a Unix one.



*as in decrapifier

He didn't 'buy' ubuntu, as you don't pay for it.

Plus it seemed like it was working but he didn't like bits of it.. I fail to see the problem here.

Galen

The guy seems to have had the usual problem with Linux, driver support or the lack of it. Of course Dell had to bundle in a dead ugly GUI instead of gnome which added insult to injury.

PogMoThoin

Why can't they ship with the standard latest version of Ubuntu? They can't even ship windows without their added bloat, same goes for this obviously.

See this, I smell corporate influence. This is why linux will always trail behind.

Galen

Now that linux is finally in a position to directly compete with Microsoft it falls down to money, corporations would rather spend their money on the tried and trusted rather spending the money on retraining. I know it sounds rediculous having to spend money on training people how to use Linux but who said that people at the top of corporation ladders were all that bright.

charlesD

velocirafter wrote: »

the reasons macs can be upgraded is because the hardware is standardised, os drivers only need to be created for a couple of different hardware models, for ubuntu to compete with windows in the open pc market then it needs to support hundreds of different pieces of hardware

I think perhaps more accurately, hundreds of different manufacturers of pieces of hardware need to provide Linux Drivers, just like they provide Windows drivers.