Comments on: 1 in 3 Dell netbooks runs Ubuntu Linux

By: wyscj

wyscj — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:25:31 +0000

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By: The Cool Tech Stuff Blog » » Netbooks Offer a Chance to Challenge Windows’ Long Reign

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:52:06 +0000

[...] XP (the newer Windows Vista is too resource-intensive to run on these underpowered machines). Dell says one in three of its netbooks carries a Linux flavor such as [...]

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:27:45 +0000

As you point out, Dell's competitors offer these features, yet Dell sells enough Mini 9's to make a business case. I don't think you've really proved anything!

By: Wired about the Jolicloud OS! | Welcome To The Best Jolicloud Linux-based Operating System For Netbooks Blog!

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:52:10 +0000

[...] XP (the newer Windows Vista is too resource-intensive to run on these underpowered machines). Dell says one in three of its netbooks carries a Linux flavor such as [...]

By: IT Tutorials » Netbooks Offer a Chance to Challenge Windows’ Long Reign

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:08:56 +0000

[...] XP (the newer Windows Vista is too resource-intensive to run on these underpowered machines). Dell says one in three of its netbooks carries a Linux flavor such as [...]

By: pHreaksYcle

pHreaksYcle — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:15:35 +0000

http://www.UbuntuMini.com helps you drop the gimped version of Ubuntu that Dell sends and easily install the latest instance of Ubuntu. I work for the site, so holler at me!

By: allen

allen — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:53:47 +0000

Ubuntu on the Mini 9 is excellent. I have it and it's the best introduction to Linux ever. Everything works and much more efficient than Windows. I tried installing 8.10 on my Mini but then reverted back to the 8.04 that was customized for it because it loads really fast and videos play smoothly on it. Ubuntu is now my favorite OS.

By: Supportive

Supportive — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:32:40 +0000

Interesting discussion here: http://ever-increasing-entropy.blogspot.com/200…

By: lccurtis1

lccurtis1 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:48:23 +0000

Lets see you install windows on s SSD

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:19:53 +0000

That is actually exactly the market segment that Canonical wants to go after with its Ubuntu netbook remix. Shuttleworth even talks about that fact in his latest interview. netbooks as web-centric information consumers.

That's exactly the sort of market that HP as targetted with its Ubuntu adapted interface for its HP Mini Mi edition.

Its not so much a matter of being palatable as it is breaking market segment inertia by stressing a different primary usage pattern..even though general purpose computing is possible.

You'll see much more of this when the ARM based netbook devices start landing to compete with the Atom based devices.

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:13:06 +0000

Are those dell numbers just the US sales of the mini or are the global sales? Dell does not offer a linux variant in all locations globally.. interpretting those sales figure correctly, there needs to be some context as to whether those are strictly US sales figures or global figures.

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22362/53/1/3/
“Again, like Toshiba, Dell has launched its new netbook in both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux versions in the US but only the Windows XP model in Australia.

Evan Williams, Dell’s Australia and New Zealand consumer sales and marketing general manager told iTWire that the company decided to release only a Windows XP version of its netbook in Australia after gauging customer demand in Australia and overseas.”

-jef

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:57:19 +0000

I purchased an Ubuntu Mini 9 for several reasons: 1) I wanted the Dell because it has no moving parts, 2) the Ubuntu Mini's went up to 64MB of SSD, 3) the President's Day sale only covered Ubuntu, and 4) I have an MSDN license which allows me to install whatever version of Windows I want for the purposes I have in mind (Win7's going on it anyway, but the license, while a bit complicated to explain, has something like 10 seats for every flavor of the OS, and this laptop is primarily for some specific programming stuff I'm doing)

By: THX_1138

THX_1138 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:36:04 +0000

This is a textbook example of distortion of statistical data. If you had compared sales of Windows XP versus Linux on the exact same hard drive configuration you might have a valid data set.
My point being, how many sales were generated solely by the choice of a 160 GB drive over a small SSD drive and not by the preference of one operating system over another?

By: Mark Looper

Mark Looper — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:16:35 +0000

I'm a long-time Apple user, but if and when I buy a netbook, dude, I'm gettin' a Dell (IM9) — largely because of size, weight, price, and easy hardware upgradability, but also largely because, as far as I've been able to tell, its stock Linux distro is pretty unmutated. That is, I expect to be able to obtain new applications from “the usual” repositories that any user-installed Ubuntu system could draw from. By contrast, for example, I understand that the first Eee PCs were “easy to learn, easy to work, easy to root” because they were locked to Asus' repository, so that there was no (reasonably easy) way to upgrade the SMB client from the old, exploit-vulnerable version that shipped with the computers.

Is this true? Can I obtain new and updated apps for the Dell IM9 Ubuntu installation just as I could if I had installed Ubuntu via a download of the standard distribution? Or (pardon my ignorance) is the “MONO” that you referred to some kind of lockdown that I need to figure out how to undo?

I guess Apple users are unaccustomed to “fragmentation” of distros; there are only a finite number of hardware and software combinations out there (if you don't count “hackintoshes”), so you know what you're getting, and what works with what. I'm not afraid of hacking to make things work — I figured out how to install a radiation-transport code I use on a cluster running FreeBSD, which the code doesn't support — but I'd rather avoid it if I can, since I'm not that savvy and I usually have to proceed by trial and error more than by logic!

By: Mikez

Mikez — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:58:22 +0000

Novell's SLED is a commercial support Linux distribution – you have
to pay your support fee to access the full repositories.

Also, since SLED is targeted at the Enterprise User (like the hp-2133)
the available software has under gone much more Q&A – -
Which is one of the things that make it “less than current” compared to
the community supported Linux distributions.

Even with those disclaimers – I moved SLED into /dev/null before even
setting it up myself.