| Why won't Dell promote its Linux desktops? |
Feb. 27, 2006
Last Thursday, when I wrote about Dell's new Linux desktop, was one of the most frustrating days of my professional life. My eWEEK colleague John Spooner and I tried our best to get Dell to confess that they really had released an honest-to-God Linux desktop.
But Dell simply wouldn't do it.
I have been following Linux since Linus Torvalds was a graduate student, and Dell since Michael Dell moved his computer sales operation out of his dorm room. I think they've done something new here.
Everyone I talked with, including Dan "The Best Operating System Analyst on the Planet" Kusnetzky, thought Dell was doing something new. The only folks who disagreed live in Austin, Texas and work for Dell.
What is going on here?
Why isn't Dell, as one mid-level IT executive I spoke with said, "shouting it from the roof tops?"
OK, so I do get part of why Dell isn't proclaiming the news. Dell has always been about sales volume. They want to sell lots and lots and ... you get the idea. Linux desktops aren't ready to sell hundreds of thousands of units -- yet.
It may be a different story next year as people try to figure out what's what with Microsoft's six different major versions of Vista.
Still, what's the harm today in just saying, "Yes, we do offer Linux on PCs"?
Dell once offered a Linux desktop back at the turn of the century. Then, there just wasn't enough interest in Linux desktops for them to make a go of it.
I can see that. I was using Linux on a desktop then. But really, in those days, only serious Unix and Linux geeks were running it that way.
It's a different story now. Today, the Linux desktop is poised to make a serious jump upward. Unfortunately, Dell isn't helping anywhere near as much as it could.
So, why aren't they?
Didn't Michael Dell himself invest almost a $100 million in Red Hat? Why, yes, yes he did.
Doesn't Dell already have partnerships in place with Red Hat? And Novell? Yes.
Didn't Dell agree to let Mandriva SA sell the Latitude 110L laptop with its Linux preinstalled in France? Yes, again.
Doesn't Dell have a Linux community site to help Dell owners use Linux? Yep.
So why did Dell refuse -- no matter how we tried to word the question -- to admit that they really had moved a bit further toward offering Linux on the desktop?
Or, better still, why doesn't Dell just start offering one Linux distribution as an option on their complete desktop line?
The reason is that, when push comes to shove, "Dell recommends the use of Windows XP Professional" on its desktops.
So I, for one, think that the real reason Dell keeps the Linux desktop at arm's reach is that it doesn't want to tick off Microsoft.
In theory, Microsoft can't strong-arm its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners into bundling Windows or other applications the way it used to when Joachim Kempin ran Microsoft's OEM show. But boy, it sure seems like a lot of the big -- and not-so-big -- vendors don't want to touch Linux with a 10-foot pole.
At least one partner, Tangent Inc., an OEM based in Burlingame, Calif., has come right out and said that Microsoft charges exorbitant fees from OEMs, distributors, and resellers for its operating system licenses.
Do you know what else Tangent claims? That Microsoft entered into restrictive agreements with OEMs and system builders that limit or eliminate their ability to feature non-Microsoft products. The company filed an antitrust lawsuit in US District Court Feb. 14 against Microsoft, alleging anticompetitive behavior in several areas (digital rights management (DRM), server software, and others). Hmmm ...
I really don't know why Dell, or any of the other first- or second-string vendors, won't support Linux on the desktop. I don't have Michael Dell's home phone number and he doesn't have mine.
I do know though that -- even if you don't believe that Linux is better than Windows -- from a purely business viewpoint, offering Linux makes sense. A Linux offering would let vendors differentiate their PCs from each other. A Linux offering would cut their operating system costs.
In short, I can make a good business case for desktop Linux being offered at least as an alternative by any PC maker.
So why, except for small OEMs, aren't they doing it?
I, for one, am going to be watching the Tangent case closely. I hope the Department of Justice is watching as well.
Otherwise, Linux on the desktop may suffer Netscape's fate on the desktop -- ground down not by any sound technical or business reason, but by the unfair forces of a monopoly.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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 About the author: Ziff Davis Internet senior editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been using and writing about technology and business since the late '80s and thinks he may just have learned something about them along the
way.
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