Dell has faced increasing difficulties, however, solving some motive power and other technical problems, and it’s not yet clear whether the Linux PC lineup is making it money.
Among major PC vendors, Dell and rival Lenovo now offer PCs not only with Linux pre-installed, but also with the right engines and configurations. This is a welcome progression for solution providers playing the roulette wheel of chasing hardware motifs. Something as undeniable as an audio driving force might, in the past, require endless hours of research.
Making it easy to get up and running with Linux on a PC was only half the battle. The more difficult task for Dell was to find a way to keep the system running-“regular updates and upgrades to new versions-“over time. This is a key concern, since many Linux distributions try to have a new release available every six months.
The launch was, in retrospect, a simple component. But how does Dell conduct ongoing maintenance efforts?As part of an ongoing investigation of Dell’s efforts over the past few months, the test center has taken a step-by-step look at one particular case.
Dell shipped a Dell Inspiron 530N with Ubuntu Linux preloaded in the middle several months ago. The formula arrived with Ubuntu 7. 04 (Feisty Fawn) pre-installed and the formula operational on a CD.
The box itself is a Dell product: “a white Dell Inspiron case with a dual-core Intel Pentium E2160 processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB SATA disk drive clocked at 7200rpm, and an Nvidia GeForce 8300 GS graphics card. The device also comes with a 16x rewritable DVD drive, a FireWire port, six USB ports (two for mouse and keyboard), and a 13-in-1 card reader. In terms of performance, the Dell 530N scored 2354 on Primate Labs’ Geekbench software.
Regular Linux users also perform blank reinstalls of the existing version. This makes sense especially if many packages have been installed and uninstalled recently, for example during an assessment. There are abandoned or corrupted packages scattered throughout the system, and sometimes performing a blank reinstall is a smart practice.
Dell includes a reinstall in the GRUB menu at startup that users can use to reinstall the same version. However, this becomes unavailable if the disk is repartitioned.
For testing purposes, Test Center reviewers first did a clean reinstall of Feisty Fawn and then upgraded to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
Ubuntu can be updated in two ways: by performing a blank installation of the new edition or by using update control software. The preferred method in the verification center is to perform a blank installation. In this way, the old packages persisted in the formulas of the previous edition are removed. On-site upgrade necessarily means that the software is replaced in parts, which creates more failure problems. Cleaning up old and unused files is not done correctly. Since knowledge was already subsidized up to an external drive and all user files in /home are saved on a separate partition, it was convenient to delete the partition with Ubuntu to install the new edition.
The initial reinstallation of Feisty Fawn was straightforward: “Enter the formula data and choose the walls using the built-in partition editor. After restarting the computer, the operating formula smoothly discovered the /home partition and all profiles were in place, smart because it was easy. Thought.
Except for one main problem: there’s no network.
It turned out that the Inspiron 530n came with the Intel network driver, but the e1000 Linux network driver couldn’t recognize the hardware. After searching mailing lists and forums, testers discovered the drivers for both, which were copied to a USB. stick to be transferred to the machine. The installation scripts took the source code, compiled it, and then installed the driver.
There were some minor issues with the Nvidia and X graphics, but downloading the existing Linux driver continued to be the issue.
As it turned out, Dell did a lot more than expected.
The pitfalls may have been somewhat avoided by simply checking out the Dell Linux wiki created by the Round Rock, Texas-based company to provide assistance and practical information to users. Ups. Dell offers pages for each model, describing known features and factors. In 530n for Ubuntu 7. 04, the factor is listed, along with the solution, kernel update, and installing a quick package.
Dell says from the outset that its Linux offering isn’t aimed at beginners. The Wiki reflects this statement, as it lacks details on how to implement the solution. There are no details on how to get the kernel or dpkg to install the package. .
Dell includes an Ubuntu Live CD with the drivers supported by the system. The first CDs that came with the 530n didn’t include the necessary drivers, but Dell has since continued with this problem. Anyone who has the CD with the missing drivers can download the remastered CD. involving the correct drivers for the e1000 driver and the Wiki’s 32-bit NVIDIA card. You can also order the new CD by contacting Dell.
For the upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon, the reviewers downloaded the traditional copy of the Ubuntu Live CD 7. 10 from the wiki. Dell has created another ISO record for each hardware platform to make sure there are suitable drivers for the Nvidia card. Installing the update was elegant, traditional CD (even networking). There was no need to check the installation of the popular Live CD from the Ubuntu site.
One thing to note about Live CDs: If the visitor’s site has a combination of hardware (some from Dell, some from third parties, running Linux), solution providers will want not to forget to have a popular Live CD from Canonical and the traditional one from Dell. If the visitor has a combination of Dell hardware, such as the 530n and 1420n, the solution provider will need to have two other Dell CDs. This can be confusing and time-consuming over the life of the system.
Dell provides Linux systems with a robust hardware platform and simplifies much of the process of maintaining a Linux PC. This is a bit spotty, as it crosses the line between novice and expert users to succeed in complex business users. An example of inequality: While Ubuntu 8. 04 Hardy Heron was in beta, the Dell wiki didn’t provide any for users who wanted to upgrade beforehand. This was at odds with Dell’s preference for complex users, many of whom would like to upgrade before the Solid Edition is released, or at least on launch day. Waiting is not something complex users should do.
But it’s an effort not many companies are currently making, putting Dell in a unique position of being the “Linux guy” one year in to the marriage between its PC business and Linux.