Dell in Linux news

Pretty neat stuff for a computer manufacturer I dont particularly care for but its nice to see more hardware with preinstalled linux. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/ ... ok-review/

I am in love with this laptop. I wish I will be able to buy it at some point.

True Swarf but look at those specs and the "out of the box" performance and compatability. You have to admit its not the average attention they gave in the past.The price is even somewhat reasonable for the hardware you get. I thought it was pretty awesome but I can be easily amused at times...

Based on the above and specifically on the "out-of-the-box" statement.

I bought myself a dell inspiron n14z (or n411z). It had win7 preinstalled. (unfortunatelly I could not find it with linux or without any OS).
I kept win7 for one week and then installed ubuntu 12.04. Everything, and when I say -everything-, worked out of the box. (wifi, function keys, camera, touchpad etc etc). EVERYTHING.

Some days ago I managed to install win7 on an external USB Hdd in order to connect same on the above laptop so as my son can play some racing games that he likes.
Believe me, nothing, and I repeat -NOTHING-, worked out of the box. I was exteremely surprised to see that not even the bloody ethernet port was working! I was lucky that I have kept the driver CD that accompanied the laptop and I had to spend half an hour to install 30 drivers the one after the other in order to even get the basic staff working! Unbelievable!

And then I thought, Ubuntu is 700mb and comes with a lot of drivers preinstalled plus a lot of software like libre office, brasero etc etc.
Win7 is about 2,5gb or more and comes with NOTHING. No drivers, no software.

Why the heck the win7 iso is so big ????

MV,

in answer to your question: "Why the heck the win7 iso is so big ????", I would say that MS is too big for its britches as the Yanks would say!!.

I must admit, it does take hours to install any MS OS on any PC regardless of what type of PC it is!!.

Regards Wolfman

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/too ... r+britches

Well said WM!

I knew what you meant Swarf. It just seemed out of the norm so to speak that Dell put Linux on what is above midgrade hardware when their mainstay is enterprise cookie cutter workstations. I know they do more than that as well but look behind any government employees desk or anywhere there are more than 10 workstations in 1 building and I bet Dell is emblazoned on the front of that tower.

On a side note MV I feel your frustration but at least Dell has free driver downloads for about any machine they ever built.Anybody who thinks Windows is easy compared to Linux hasnt had to maintain 118 workstations and 17 Windows servers.
There are some pretty "fat" linux iso's too namely that UltimateEdition OS that Swarf has in his sig. I have yet to get a good download on 1 of them. I will keep trying though.

ak1ovic wrote:There are some pretty "fat" linux iso's too namely that UltimateEdition OS that Swarf has in his sig. I have yet to get a good download on 1 of them. I will keep trying though.

Yes I know, however these fat linux isos (like UE) contain 1.000.000 programs, software, packages and drivers in them.

Win7 iso comes with nothing. So why is it so big? Is it the registry?

I tried Windoze 8 and all I can say is Yuk!!. The Einstein's at MS worked overtime on making it as crappy as possible!!. It is nearly as bad as Vista but I won't go down that road, I sold my version (Vista) after 3 days and even spoke to the MS manager in Germany and told her what I thought of it!!, nice woman btw!!.

I might install it for someone I hate but thats about it!!.

Regards Wolfman

Wolfman wrote:I might install it for someone I hate but thats about it!!.

hahahahahahaha Epic!

No Swarf, that should be "Hate" but my keyboard has a mind of its own sometimes!!.

Windoze 8 sucks as far as I'm concerned, when booting; the login window is hidden by a nice splash screen but it doesn't tell you you need to press enter to advance, there is no menu button (you can add a small button via the taskbar panel settings!) which to me is an important part of any OS. It is most likely fine for touchscreen PC's; but I don't have one!!.

Regards Wolfman

If you find Windows 8 hard to use or navigate you can always go to staples and get "free" Windows 8 training My employer can get Windows 8 upgrade for 8 dollars...I told him no thanks.