SubSónica

Aunque ya lo hace en el área de servidores y con algún equipo de sobremesa de linea empresarial, Dell, hace unas semanas en una encuesta llamada “ideastorm” recibió una avalancha de solicitudes clamando para que fabricasen equipos para el gran público 100% compatibles con Linux y libres del “impuesto revolucionario” que ahora se paga a Microsoft con cada PC compatible nuevo que se compra a un ensamblador de los grandes (Dell, HP, Acer, PackardBell, Sony, Toshiba…).
Muchos pensamos que podía tratarse tan solo de una estrategia de marketing o de un “globo sonda” y que Dell no se atrevería a ir más allá, temerosa de suscitar las iras de su principal suministrador de software o atada por los acuerdos que mantiene con Microsoft.
Sin embargo Dell ha continuado manteniendo un fructífero intecambio de ideas con sus clientes (actuales y potenciales) a través de varios foros y está preparandose para dar pasos en la dirección correcta, que es la que los clientes le piden, haciendo hincapié en la disponibilidad de hardware con drivers libres.
Una gama de equipos compatibles con Linux dentro de la oferta de uno de los grandes OEM sin duda supondrá el espaldarazo definitivo para que Gnu/Linux llegue al usuario de a pie.
La estrategia es bien clara: Satisfacer las demandas de los clientes, opuesta a la que algunas otras empresas parecen estar intentando estos días: tratar de obligar a los clientes a hacer algo que no quieren (como actualizar a vista?), o como HP, que recientemente le negó la garantía a un usuario de un portátil fabricado por ellos por cometer el pecado de instalarle Linux, lo cual es harto vergonzoso, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta la pasta gansa -25 millones de dólares- que ha ganado HP últimamente ni más ni menos que gracias a Debian Gnu/Linux.
¿Qué será de Windows cuando pierda el monopolio de los ensambladores OEM?¿Debe una empresa sobrevivir si va en contra de sus clientes, por mucho que eso satisfaga a sus accionistas?

Copio y pego las últimas noticias de Dell sobre este tema. Prometo traducirlas cuando tenga un hueco:
FuenteS:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/ideastorm/ideasinaction?c=us&l=en&s=gen
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/28/9655.aspx

¿Pierdes la garantía si usas Gnu/Linux con tu portatil HP?:
href=”http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/03/23/1430204&tid=3

ACTUALIZACIÓN:
También cubre la noticia Steven J. Vaugham-Nichols en DesktopLinux.com, aunque no es santo de mi devoción porque desde que pasó a trabajar para ZDnet (Ziff Davis) este tío no ha dejado de apoyar el acuerdo Microsoft-Novell, hacer publicidad de Novell-SuSE y de atacar a la FSF y la GPLv3.
(Vota este post en meneame.net)

March 28, 2007
Dell to Expand Linux Factory Installed Options
Since launching Dell IdeaStorm a little more than a month ago, one idea has risen to and stayed at the top: better support for Linux. We have heard you and appreciate the direct feedback. On March 13, we responded by launching a Linux survey asking for your feedback on what you need for a better Linux experience. Thank you to the more than 100,000 people who took the survey. Here are some of the highlights from the survey:

* More than 70% of survey respondents said they would use a Dell system with a Linux operating system for both home and office use.
* Survey respondents indicated they want a selection of notebook and desktop offerings.
* Majority of survey respondents said that existing community-based support forums would meet their technical support needs for a tested and validated Linux operating system on a Dell system.
* Survey respondents indicated that improved hardware support for Linux is as important as the distribution(s) offered.

Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today.

Many of you posted comments to our Direct2Dell blog, indicating that you were less concerned about a specific distribution than you are about support at the kernel level and open driver support. We are working on this too, and you can read more about our efforts in today’s Direct2Dell post.

——

Linux: Driver Support is Key

We received over 500 comments to my last post about expanding Linux onto more of the Dell product line. As noted on IdeaStorm, we’re working on it.

A few trends emerged from the comments and I want to address them directly in this and future posts. This post focuses on our strategy for device drivers. All of the practices described here are available today—you can enact them yourselves too.

At least half of the comments effectively said “we want Free Software, GPL-licensed drivers which are maintained in kernel.org, for all hardware in Dell systems.” This request is not new to us—it’s been our standard operating procedure for the last 8 years on PowerEdge servers, which today have no closed-source drivers necessary. For new Linux desktops and notebooks, we’ll use drivers already in the mainline kernel.org kernels for as many components as possible. In these cases, the drivers will be included in your distribution of choice. This includes storage, wired networking, power management, USB, and more.

For device types where a choice exists between a component with a non-Free driver and one with Free driver availability, in our Linux offering we’ll opt to bundle the component with the Free driver. Wireless network adapters is one such example; Printers are another. We recommend Linux users buy our printers which have PostScript engines in them, as opposed to those which don’t and for which no Linux drivers are yet available. The Tech Specs tab for each printer on dell.com show if it has PostScript or not.

Some components, particularly some video cards, have working 2-D open source drivers, open source 3-D drivers actively being clean-room written by the community, and closed-source 3-D drivers available from the video card manufacturer. In these instances, while we continue to encourage the development (by all parties) towards open source drivers, we will provide the closed-source drivers for people who wish to use them.

The last category is devices for which no open source drivers are available at all, such as software-based modems. In our desktops these are add-in cards, so you can substitute a hardware-based modem available from your local electronics store quite easliy. However, we can’t substitute hardware-based modems in our notebooks without redesigning and significantly increasing the price of the system. If it’s important to you to have a hardware-based modem, you would add one into your PC Card or ExpressCard slot.

Dell recognizes the importance of open source, GPL-licensed drivers which are maintained upstream in kernel.org. They allow users the widest choice of Linux distributions, effectively taking the specific hardware and distribution out of the decision-making process and let you focus on solving your business problems. We will work with our hardware partners to develop, test, and maintain Free drivers, and continue to make progress towards that goal for all drivers. Most drivers are in good shape now, but there’s clearly longer-term work to be done. Work that we’re doing now at the driver level will pave the way for more Linux offerings in the future. There’s no way to please everyone, but I’ll continue to share more details around our strategy as we have new developments. Stay tuned.