Dell Ubuntu prices now released

Today I read an article on Digg, that compared the pricing of several Dell models, featuring Ubuntu 7.04 vs. Windows Vista operating systems. Here’s a link to the results.

Not surprisingly, all Ubuntu Dell’s are cheaper – as much as $140 cheaper for the identical machine.

Now we’ll see how the market “votes”.

Ubuntu, IdeaStorm and my friend Dave….

Here’s an interesting (about 9 minute long) video I found on Dell’s website. It features Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu project founder) talking about how Linux found it’s way into Dell’s product mix, via IdeaStorm.

Enjoy.

I promised an update on the Ubuntu experiment that we undertook with my friend, Dave. If you recall from a previous post, my son installed Ubuntu on an old (about to be discarded) desktop. With nothing left to lose, he wanted to experiment with Linux.

After playing for a couple of weeks, we have a satisfied customer. Dave’s PC did not have a network card in it. After booting Ubuntu and playing for a short while, he was very eager to see how everything worked once he was connected to the Internet. The idea was that this new PC was to be basically a PC for his kids – to allow them email access, web browsing and access to Internet based gaming.

After a quick trip to purchase a network card, he managed to (without help from us) get it up and running. Not quite as seamless as a “true” plug’n'play experience, but mission accomplished, nonetheless. His family is now “connected”. All that remains to be seen is how his kids respond to the new environment. Stay tuned.

Fountain of Youth for your old PC?

My friend Dave, has an old Dell desktop with 128mg memory and a 800 mHz Pentium 3 processor. The PC was primarily used by his family for playing computer games. His kids had long ago abandoned the PC because it was so slow, and they lacked the patience to wait until it booted before moving onto some other activity!

So there his PC sat, unloved, unused, abandoned.

With nothing left to lose, he asked us to install Linux on it. Our first attempt failed, when we got a cryptic error message before getting to the install screen. Since we were previously successful with a similar processor and 256mg of memory, we speculated that a memory upgrade was required. After a quick trip to Best Buy to retrieve 256mg of additional memory ($49) we were in business.

In less than an hour we had transformed an aged relic into a fully functioning (dare I say speedy?) PC once again. It now boots in a fraction of the time it took with the old Microsoft operating system. His “renewed PC” comes complete with email, IM, an open source office productivity suite, a browser and home networking.

I wonder how many old PCs there are out there, abandoned for all the same reasons.

Is this a “green” business opportunity? Could someone out there build a business around bringing old PCs back to life as Linux machines? I believe the vast majority of home PCs are used for email, IM and browsing the internet.

In my short experience with Ubuntu (Linux), it seems to fit the bill. Before declaring Ubuntu the “Fountain of Youth” for old Microsoft based PCs, I’ll check back with Dave in a month or so and report on his Linux experience.

Stay tuned.

Eating My Own Dog Food

Yesterday, I suggested that CIOs should be constantly running micro experiments. I’ve found it keeps your I.T. employees engaged and growing through lifelong learning and who knows, you might even uncover a big productivity or cost savings opportunity.

After telling YOU to experiment, it suddenly occurred to me that I haven’t been experimenting as much as I should! So I took one of my own recommendations and tried it out.

I decided to install Linux on an old PC. More accurately, I had the Quiet Creek Tech Team (my 15 year old son, Jeff) do it.

The “patient” was a 4 year old Dell laptop (who’s battery gave up recharging long ago). It was (barely) running Microsoft XP and MS Office.

Jeff downloaded Ubuntu to his MAC, (which took 30 minutes) and burned a boot CD (another 30 minutes). The Ubuntu documentation says you can boot Linux from the CD, just to try it out before deciding to install. You also have the option of partitioning your hard drive to allow your legacy O/S to co-exist (Ubuntu does this for you), or you can simply replace your old O/S with Linux.

We tossed the CD into our laptop and after 5 minutes of “playing” we decided to go for broke and install it. We had nothing to lose. We kept the old laptop so Jeff could us MS Word for school projects and even if the entire experiment was a disaster, we had other PCs he could use.

From the time we hit “Install” the process took about 2 hours. We decided to try Linux as the ONLY O/S on the laptop. The Ubuntu version of Linux comes complete with OpenOffice 2.2, Firefox browser, self updating anti-virus software, Email, IM, DVD and Audio players and several games – pretty much all the basics.

Jeff is not a huge fan of documentation, preferring instead to look around and “play”, but for those of you who like to read, Ubuntu comes with decent documentation.

Once installed, with literally 2 clicks of the mouse, our Linux system was attached to our wireless home network and we were using Firefox to surf the net. Ten minutes later, Jeff had the email client configured. The process was surprisingly simple and intuitive.

So after an evening of experimenting, we now have a Linux system up and running. The real test will come over the next few months as we use it for “real world” applications, but so far the results are encouraging. Stay tuned.

Oh, and just for fun, I took a look at a cheap Dell desktop PC ($699). Bundled in the price was Vista Home premium ($111.99) and Works 8.0 ($49.95). At list price, the bundled Microsoft software accounted for 23% of the total price of the machine. And this savings doesn’t include the anit-virus software that you must add.

Any CIOs out there interested in reducing the cost of each and every desktop/laptop by 23% AND eliminating all the licencing headaches that accompany them? Just asking……