66653
Pre-Installed Linux | Ubuntu | Fedora | OpenSUSE | Multi-Boot
Desktops and Notebooks submitted by dhart Feb 16
Offer the 3 top free Linux versions for free pre-installation on all Dell PCs.
Quality free and open source software drastically lowers the cost of new PCs, and helps prevent software piracy. For example OpenOffice.org, the Microsoft Office alternative, can shave hundreds of dollars off the price of a new PC. Cast your vote for OpenOffice and other free software.
Offer easy multi-boot options with Windows Vista, Windows XP, or NO Windows (yes, Linux can entirely replace Windows!)
Offer trade-ins and Linux CDs for older model Dell PCs. Cast your vote for the mini Linux Dell PC and the Universal Education Dell PC, both utilizing free software.
Would you try Linux if it were this easy?
CHOICE is what consumers want on their new PCs, not annoying surprise circus-ware (the typical smattering of confusing 3rd party popup-infested software found on most new Dell PCs). Quality free and open source software is well behaved, and may be legally pre-installed on PCs, and legally shared with friends and family, sharing is encouraged! Cast your vote for consumer CHOICE and public transparency at Dell.
344 Comments »
39782
Pre-Installed OpenOffice | alternative to MS Works & MS Office
Desktops and Notebooks, Small Business submitted by dhart Feb 17
Provide OpenOffice.org for free pre-installation alongside Microsoft Works and Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org is more capable than Microsoft Works, and a serious competitor to Microsoft Office, at a fraction of the cost (it's free!)
OpenOffice.org can open, create and save Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
Provide as OPTIONS for pre-installation many other high-quality free software programs such as:
- Firefox (web browser with popup and privacy controls; say goodbye to Internet Explorer infections!)
- Thunderbird (email program with free anti-spam and privacy controls)
- GAIM (instant messaging all-in-one program for popup-free MSN, Yahoo, AOL and others)
- PDFCreator (creates Adobe PDF files from any program)
- Scribus, Inkscape & GIMP (desktop publishing, freehand drawing & powerful image editing)
- Audacity & VLC (multi-track audio editing & universal all-in-one media/video/movie/DVD player)
- Stellarium & Celestia (planetarium viewer & outer-space mapping, like Google Earth, but for our Solar System)
Pre-installed quality free and open source software drastically lowers the cost of new PCs, and helps prevent software piracy. Cast your vote for Linux and other free software. Cast your vote for the Universal Education PC utilizing free software.
CHOICE is what consumers want on their new PCs, not annoying surprise circus-ware (the typical smattering of confusing 3rd party popup-infested software found on most new Dell PCs). Quality free and open source software is well behaved, and may be legally pre-installed on PCs, and legally shared with friends and family, sharing is encouraged! Cast your vote for consumer CHOICE and public transparency at Dell.
93 Comments »
30317
linux laptop
Desktops and Notebooks submitted by tonyalfrey Feb 17
Sell a laptop with linux in which everything works.
1. Select a distro.
2. Work with the packager of the distro to make sure that you've selected components for the laptop that have all the necessary drivers.
3.. Develop a tight working relationship with the packager of the distro so that they have some sense that you're in it for the long haul.
4. Provide a service contract through the packager of the distro for support on the software.
5. Work with the packager of the distro to keep the distro/laptop functional, so that stupid kernel updates don't break the system.
6. Make it idiot proof like a Mac. 42 Comments »
27206
NO EXTRA SOFTWARE OPTION
submitted by ootleman Feb 16
Would love the ability to have a clean Vista install. No AOL software, no earthlink software, no google software - just a clean, original OS. 136 Comments »
23335
Have Firefox pre-installed as default browser
Desktops and Notebooks submitted by robinjfisher 2 days ago
Does what it says on the tin! Most people only use IE because they aren't aware of other browsers - they think Internet Explorer is the Internet!
What would really drive take up of alternative browsers is if Firefox was pre-installed as the default browser so that when people look for the "Internet" in Windows, they are using FF. 39 Comments »
22922
No OS Preloaded
submitted by agreer Feb 17
I have a XP Pro retail copy, will soon buy retail vista, I also like Linux: Make WINDOWS-FREE, and OS-Free an option for more than just expensive business lines...let me get that cheap-o $500 dimension without Windows...please! 37 Comments »
22922
16763
Build computers not loaded with extra software
Desktops and Notebooks submitted by onethumb Feb 16
It's impossible for a home user to go to Dell.com and buy a computer that's not loaded down with software they don't want.
Is it so hard to ask to build a Dell with Windows and Office on it, and nothing else? That's what my mother-in-law wanted.
Instead, she bought a Mac Mini since she couldn't get a Dell like that. 32 Comments »
10469
More RAM!
Desktops and Notebooks submitted by mwmtjm Jan 30
Do away with 512MB of memory as a base option to buy consumer desktops and notebooks. With Vista running best on 1GB at a minimum, don't make customers have a basic experience with the new OS because Dell wants to be able to advertise at a lower price point.
The success of Vista -- and subsequently for Dell -- will be largely in word of mouth. Take a long-term view and build the momentum one great customer experience at a time right now!
Better still, let's lead the industry where we know it is going! 26 Comments »
9992
No more over seas tech support.
Service and Support submitted by pdonket Feb 16
Now, honestly....I know that this may not be the nicest thing, but the biggest complaint I hear and have myself is that dell hires techs that sometimes I really can't understand at ALL. Come on people, promote this idea, wouldn't you like to hear someone who spoke english as a first language?
No offense meant here, but I would just like not to have to reconfirm my service tag 5 times until we go over the "b for bowling" "g for gorilla" etc. 112 Comments »
9131
No India Call Centers
Service and Support submitted by henrieb Feb 17
As a corporate customer I like Dell's products and my USA customer support. As a consumer I have had too many problems with India Call Centers. I have read the web about all the people that have had problems with Dell customer service from India and I will not buy any of your products. I have had the misfortune to receive customer support from India through many different companies with always the same out come, BAD CUSTOMER SUPPORT. I am now at the point that if a product is supported from an India Call center I will not purchase the product. If you want people to be loyal take a hint from the corporate sales and give Home users even a little customer support.
* Addition: After reading several of the comments on this topic it appears that what we really want is someone in customer support that will listen to us, and hopefully help us. Culture and language just make this harder. Maybe a better way to track customer performance would be to find out if they really helped someone and not how fast they can end the call.
If you vote for this idea please also vote for "No more over seas tech support" it has more points and we don't want to dilute this idea. 40 Comments »
Dell IdeaStorm
Moderator: Thanas
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Dominus Atheos
- Sith Marauder
- Posts: 3904
- Joined: 2005-09-15 09:41pm
- Location: Portland, Oregon
Dell IdeaStorm
Dell has a new site, Dell IdeaStorm, where users submit and vote for ideas for future Dell products and services. Here are the top 10 ideas:
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Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 3317
- Joined: 2004-10-15 08:57pm
- Location: Regina Nihilists' Guild Party Headquarters
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Soontir C'boath
- SG-14: Fuck the Medic!
- Posts: 6857
- Joined: 2002-07-06 12:15am
- Location: Queens, NYC I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF MANHATTEN IS CONSIDERED NYC!! I'M IN IT ASSHOLE!!!
- Contact:
Understandable tech support should be at the top of the list. Really, would the average Dell customer really care about Linux?
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
I haven't a clue as to what you're saying.Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba wrote:Describing this as a train headed towards a cliff covered in molasses, spikes in an action-movie explosion field would be an astute comparison.
(seriously)
Incidently, here at work(In the Large Federal Building That Shall Remain Nameless) I've had to call into vendors confirm whether or not their products are still under warrenty. I use the DOD Phonetic alphabet ("Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...") more with the overseas call centers than with the amry guys I work with.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
Like all web surveys it is susceptible to vote stuffing by vocal minorities, which is what we're seeing here. There is a big trainwreck of a thread over on Ars where they go into it and the consensus seems to be (following a few quotes from Dell reps) that they are being purposefully vague and that nothing is likely to come of it, especially because they already tried offering Linux more then it is offered right now and there was very little interest for it so that option was scrapped.
Although, the NO EXTRA SOFTWARE option seems very nice to me. OEMs should not have the ability to totally fuck over a virgin computer with crippleware and not even give you standard install media (a clean Win install disc and a driver disc with the crippleware as optional install) so you can reinstall it clean yourself.
Although, the NO EXTRA SOFTWARE option seems very nice to me. OEMs should not have the ability to totally fuck over a virgin computer with crippleware and not even give you standard install media (a clean Win install disc and a driver disc with the crippleware as optional install) so you can reinstall it clean yourself.
Dell preinstalls all of that trialware crap, but my new Latitude came with just the discs you described (an OS disc and a couple of drivers/apps discs)
After initial bootup, I did a complete reinstall of the OS and put on only the apps I use.
After initial bootup, I did a complete reinstall of the OS and put on only the apps I use.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
Oderint dum metuant
Oderint dum metuant
I always do that with Dell Tech support. Although it takes some explaining of what I am doing, by the end of the call I've usually saved time.Lonestar wrote:I use the DOD Phonetic alphabet ("Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...") more with the overseas call centers than with the amry guys I work with.
"I believe in the future. It is wonderful because it stands on what has been achieved." - Sergei Korolev
Totally. I have a pronounced accent myself, so I long ago decided to use the phonetic alphabet whenever it became clear that the other guy didn't understand me, or that I didn't understand them. Half the time they already know it(I suspect that's a tool that is picked up quicly at overseas call centers) and the other half they pick up on what I'm doing. Isn't a perfect solution, but as a Tech support guy with an accent myself(even though I'm a field tech) I tend to cut them slack.MariusRoi wrote:
I always do that with Dell Tech support. Although it takes some explaining of what I am doing, by the end of the call I've usually saved time.
It's when the technician on the other end(whenever I've called for personal problems) resolutely sticks to a script that causes problems, I've found.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
