| Dell gives desktop Linux its "full attention" |
Feb. 20, 2007
In an attempt to boost its sagging fortunes, Dell, one of the leading PC makers in America, recently launched the Dell Idea Storm website to solicit ideas on how to get Dell back to the top. The most popular idea so far? Desktops with pre-installed Linux.
That's good news, but what's better news is that Dell is taking it seriously. In a brief email exchange with Bob Pearson, Dell's vice president of corporate group communications, said, "You're right that Linux is one of the hottest topics on Idea Storm."
Specifically, users wanted the top-three free Linuxes -- Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE -- offered as selections for the Dell desktop. The Linux option was almost twice as popular as the next option. That next option was, by the way, to have OpenOffice pre-installed instead of Microsoft Works or a trial version of Microsoft Office.
After that, the fourth most popular option was for Dell to offer a laptop with Linux pre-installed. The fifth on the list was, if Dell couldn't offer Linux pre-installed, was to start offering systems without any operating system.
Dell has long offered workstations with Red Hat Linux Enterprise Linux WS 4 installed. There was also a time when Dell made one of its computers, the Dimension E510n PC, available with a blank hard disk. Today, Dell offers several of its low-priced nSeries desktops without an installed operating system.
As for this wave of support for the Linux desktop, Pearson said that "We are immediately sharing these ideas throughout our company, so that our managers can determine what we should do and/or some of the ideas will trigger others. Later this week, we will start posting those ideas where we have or will soon take action."
While "I can't speak specifically to Linux," Pearson said, "I can assure you it is getting full attention."
In recent months, Dell has struggled as its market-share has slipped and an SEC investigation into its accounting and financial practices has dragged on. Dell is now second to Hewlett-Packard in the market. The immediate result was that Kevin Rollins, who took over as CEO in 2004, resigned and founder Michael Dell returned as the company's CEO.
When Michael Dell took over the steering wheel on January 31, he said, "I am enthusiastic about Dell 2.0, which includes our plan to provide the best customer experience, build a strong global services business and ensure our products deliver the best long-term customer value."
Dell 2.0 can be summed up as putting the customers first instead of purely trying to maximize the bottom line with cost-cutting efficiencies. As Graham Weston, executive chairman for Rackspace Managed Hosting, said in an eWEEK interview after Michael Dell came back, "It was a classic example of a company putting efficiency first," Weston said. "They wanted one supplier, not two. They wanted one motherboard, not two ... so they chose efficiency over what the customer wanted."
In a DesktopLinux interview almost a year ago, Michael Dell said that his company wasn't leading Linux, it was tracking Linux. Today, with a company that's committed to putting customer needs first and a business that has shown that it's willing to take radical steps with its products -- such as first supporting AMD Opteron chips in its servers, and then following that move with support for AMD chips in its desktops -- perhaps Dell is now ready to make a Linux desktop move.
If nothing else, Pearson concluded today's message with "We'll stay in touch on this topic." Desktop Linux users are hoping that he'll get back in touch with an announcement that Dell will offer Linux on one or more of its popularly priced desktop or laptops.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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