Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 17:46:02 -0500 (CDT) From: Joel Ray Holveck <joelh@gnu.org> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Fw: Dell Announces Free Software Message-ID: <199809182246.RAA05949@detlev.UUCP>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Forwarded-by: joelh@gnu.org Forwarded-by: Tim Ney <ten@gnu.org> Dell Ships PCs, Servers With Linux By Connie Guglielmo Although there's no mention of the Linux operating system anywhere on its World Wide Web storefront, leading PC maker Dell Computer Corp. acknowledged last week it has been delivering servers with the popular freeware software factory-installed to corporate customers over the past year as part of a recently formalized program that extends its long-standing tradition of offering build-to-order systems. Dell said it will factory-install the Unix-based operating system on PC systems for customers who purchase a minimum of 50 machines per quarter, Jim Mazzola, a spokesman at Dell's enterprise systems group, said last week. There's no minimum on the server side, but customers who want a single server with Linux, or any other nonsupported OS or custom software factory-installed, will be charged an additional $250 set-up fee for the server, Mazzola added. While more than 46 hardware resellers in 10 countries offer desktop, laptop and server systems equipped with the free operating system, which was created in 1991 by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, Dell apparently becomes the first major PC maker to ship systems with Linux preinstalled. But the company, which sells more than $6 million in PC hardware and servers off its Web site each day, said it has no plans to add Linux to its list of supported PC or network operating systems -- at least for now. That means consumers interested in buying a personal computer from Dell -- or from any of the other major PC makers, for that matter -- can only buy desktop and laptop machines with a version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows or Windows NT operating systems installed. "We shipped our first servers with Linux factory-installed about a year ago," Mazzola said, adding that the majority of server systems that Dell ships today are outfitted with Windows NT and Novell Inc.'s Netware network operating system. "Since early this year, we've gotten about two calls per week asking us about Linux." Interest in Linux, as well as customer requests to have custom software and hardware preconfigured on Dell hardware, led the company to launch an informal program about 18 months ago that allowed customers in the U.S. and Europe to order built-to-order systems with "homegrown" applications, specialized software and peripherals and other hardware factory-installed, Mazzola said. On June 30, the company formalized the program and announced it would build custom-configured systems as part of its "DellPlus" integration program for its PowerEdge servers and PCs. "The DellPlus program is a logical extension of the build-to-order model that helped grow Dell as a company," Mazzola said. In the past few months, major database makers including Informix Corp., Oracle Corp. and Sybase Inc. have said they are at work on Linux versions of their applications, and Netscape Communications Corp. announced plans to support the operating system as a platform for its popular Web server software. "I'm not surprised that they are supplying Linux in limited amounts, because they don't want to lose those accounts," said Larry Augustin, founder of VA Research Inc. -- Joel Ray Holveck - joelh@gnu.org - http://www.wp.com/piquan Fourth law of programming: Anything that can go wrong wi sendmail: segmentation violation - core dumped To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199809182246.RAA05949>