Dell bundles Ubuntu Linux on PCs in China
Hái méi for Ubuntu on PowerEdge servers
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Commercial Linux distributor Canonical and PC and server maker Dell are tag teaming to peddle Linux on PCs in China.
According to a blog post, Dell and Canonical have announced a partnership to push Linux on consumer PCs in China through 220 retail stores operated by Dell in the country.
Dell's Chinese PC stores sporting Ubuntu
Dell was unable to provide a list of machines that were configured with Ubuntu, but a spokesperson tells El Reg that the company is targeting Ubuntu at consumers, not corporate or government customers in the burgeoning country, which has just become the largest PC market, knocking the United States from that throne in the second quarter. (The US is expected to regain its position in the second half of this year thanks to back-to-school and holiday buying, but eventually, just by the virtue of its population and rising economy, China will consume more PCs.)
Canonical says that Dell it is not yet (that's the hái méi part, if I trust Google Translate) preconfiguring Ubuntu Server on any PowerEdge machines in the country. But with many greenfield companies buying computers for the first time and not having a bias for or against Windows, you would think that Dell and Canonical would be hooking up to sell PC and server bundles aimed to companies. They may yet get around to it. Partner with some business software and it would probably be a hit.
This is not Dell's first time putting Linux on PCs. Four years ago, Dell was plunking Ubuntu on PCs sold in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany and SUSE Linux on PCs sold in China. The most perplexing thing is that Dell is not putting Red Flag Linux – the indigenous open source operating system – on its PCs and servers in China. But this move is no doubt good for Canonical. ®
COMMENTS
@Matt Bucknall
I think you will find the Chinese students are far smarter and more adaptable to technology that that sad example of the worst of USA education.
Guess which country is growing and going to win the technological future?
Tux, you don't need to be fiendishly clever to be his/her friend any more.
Lives ruined - rubbish!
''Schubert's computer came with Open Office, a word processing software package that is compatible with Microsoft Word. She says she wasn't aware it was compatible.''
By the looks of things she did not try, if she had she would have found that it worked.
I suspect that the problem was her secondary school -- too many school teachers only know how to use MS Windows (I do use the word ''know'' lightly, many teachers who I have met don't know much) and teach pupils how to press buttons to get things done. They do not teach understanding and insight, which is what they should be doing. This is partly a result of the very successful MS marketing to make teachers believe that anything other than MS is strange and incomprehensible - except for a Mac and even they are a little odd - best left alone.
Round 3
Dell does this every few years, cops a rocket from Microsoft, and immediately desists. Right now Ballmer will be heading to the Dell office carrying a garden gnome.
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