High return rate of Linux netbooks a myth, according to Dell

Dell has delivered a dose of reality for both Microsoft and the Linux community on the subject of netbooks.

Speaking at OpenSource World, a Dell executive deflated Microsoft’s enthusiasm for making a case out of the number of Linux netbooks returned by unhappy customers.

Dell: Linux v Windows netbook returns a ‘non-issue’ • The Register

Just shows how much FUD MS is still spreading around.

i am using dell laptop, it is very difficult to use suse on dell laptop.
i am using bsnl usb modem for internet it is not supported by suse
plz anyone can help
thanks:(

An interesting article, even more so than just the headline. It’s good to see a realistic discussion about linux marketing issues, and Zonker’s presence alongside Dell. :wink:

It’s really a case of the incumbent’s advantage and the average consumer’s fear of the unknown. The price difference isn’t very visible and often obscured by tricks such as OEM discounting and cashbacks. The security, well humans are forever optimistic, yes they won’t be the one to be hit by a car while running across the street, it’s always someone else. So they turn to the thing they have seen advertised a lot, like any of the fast food chains.

But slowly, through grassroot efforts, through more publicity, smarter people realise there is a superior alternative. It also helps that there are cross-platform applications so they can see that the same apps exist for Linux.

I think this is dependant on the Dell Laptop model.

I use openSUSE on a Dell Studio 1537 laptop and it is VERY EASY to use with openSUSE.

I think there are many users who would like to help you, but PLEASE NOT HERE in CHIT-CHAT subforum.

The guidance to this sub forum explicity states

“General Chit-Chat A friendly place to converse about your adventures with openSUSE, your weekend, your boss, your new car, and generally stuff that doesn’t fit somewhere else (and we must ask: PLEASE do not post help questions here)”
So, PLEASE DO NOT POST help questions here.

Instead please post your help question here: Hardware - openSUSE Forums

> It’s really a case of the incumbent’s advantage and the average
> consumer’s fear of the unknown.

It’s also about the mysterious disappearance of product and the sudden
replacement of Linux with Windows XP on netbooks…It’s also about product
that used to be displayed alongside Windows now being found in the back
of the store on a high wall shelf.

Here in Brasil only the cheaper computers come with linux. Anything above a celeron and such comes with vista OEM (argh).

So I end up paying for something I’ll never use.

And the GNU/linux distros on them are geared towards making the user pay for support/access to repositories - not a bad thing per se, given that many users need a lot of support. But these distros, with rare exceptions, are not mainstream, and nowhere near as polished as Suse, or even Ubuntu.

Ah, and a few (very) cheap laptops come only with freeDOS…

On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:46:01 +0000, jokersingh wrote:

> i am using dell laptop, it is very difficult to use suse on dell laptop.

I’m using openSUSE on a Dell laptop, and it works great. :slight_smile:

Jim

Certainly that sort of thing falls under promotion expenditure by M$, as do various cashback incentives. But netbook manufacturers have also been playing the game. Asus has been using Linux to wheedle concessions out of M$, which is why only the low-end machines carry Linux. I doubt very much if the execs at Asus care about Linux. It’s just a means to an end. But it’s also very much a case of the masses want fast food so that’s what they get. Also unrealistic expectations about netbooks. Consumers think it’s a cheap shrunk-down laptop with Word and all that junk. Then they find the screen’s too small, the keys too fiddly for that kind of scenario. The other day, standing at the netbook display at the local retailers I overhear one man look at the 701 and mutter Linux, no I don’t want that. I left him to his overpriced fast food.

> the local retailers I overhear one man look at the 701 and mutter Linux,
> no I don’t want that. I left him to his overpriced fast food.

Would be interesting to speak with him and find out how he formed that
conclusion. Was it a previous experience with Linux or something else I
wonder?

No, I got the impression that he and his partner had inflated expectations of what netbooks could do, especially with regard to screen space. He’ll be in for a disappointment with XP on a netbook too. If you want enough screen real estate you have to pay for it.

> No, I got the impression that he and his partner had inflated
> expectations of what netbooks could do, especially with regard to screen
> space. He’ll be in for a disappointment with XP on a netbook too. If you
> want enough screen real estate you have to pay for it.

Ah…so how does Linux use more screen real estate? Guess I’m not following
the logic…perhaps there was none to follow. :slight_smile:

On Thu, 2009-08-13 at 22:56 +0000, ken yap wrote:
> GofBorg;2025656 Wrote:
> > It’s also about the mysterious disappearance of product and the sudden
> > replacement of Linux with Windows XP on netbooks…It’s also about
> > product
> > that used to be displayed alongside Windows now being found in the
> > back
> > of the store on a high wall shelf.
>
> Certainly that sort of thing falls under promotion expenditure by M$,
> as do various cashback incentives. But netbook manufacturers have also
> been playing the game. Asus has been using Linux to wheedle concessions
> out of M$, which is why only the low-end machines carry Linux. I doubt
> very much if the execs at Asus care about Linux. It’s just a means to an
> end. But it’s also very much a case of the masses want fast food so
> that’s what they get. The other day, standing at the netbook display at
> the local retailers I overhear one man look at the 701 and mutter Linux,
> no I don’t want that. I left him to his overpriced fast food.
>
>

Another variable is the fact that Intel DOES NOT want the netbook market
to consume even the low end of the NOTEBOOK market (Intel doesn’t want
to compete with itself, especially going from higher margins to lower
margins).

Windows is pretty easy for Intel to control… they make a deal and
Windows gets arbitrarily limited so that it doesn’t work as well on a
netbook vs. a notebook. But with Linux… that’s a different story.
Linux actually works quite well on very low end netbooks and offers a
notebook-like experience (minus any diffculty due to lower resolution
screen, screen size and keyboard size, etc).

In fact, you can get a current netbook and it will run as well as
mid-tier NOTEBOOKS from 4-5 years ago… not with Windows, but with Linux
this is certainly true. That means, for most, you can spend anywhere
from $100 - $250USD and get a very inexpensive NOTE^H^H^H^Hnetbook using
Linux.

Now… if Intel could come up with a preferred Linux based distro for
netbooks that arbitrarily limits the user (possibly not the advanced
user)… then Intel would be happier (Can you say Moblin anyone?).

Regardless, due to the Windows mess, Linux afficianados benefit again
(just like when Win95 came out). Thus Linux users should be able to get
a $100 - 150USD netbook now (they’ll be refurbs from the disgruntled
Windows user) that will easily satisfy a large portion of the Linux user
base (those that are willing to sacrificed size and resolution).

I just installed openSUSE 11.1 (KDE 4.2.4 + compiz) on a 1st gen Acer
(well… an A110 with 8G SSD) that I paid $150USD… works great.

No, we’re talking about perceptions here. I surmise that his perception is that because Linux runs on the lowest end netbook model, the 7", because Asus has mostly gone for XP in the 9" models, he thinks that he needs a better netbook, one with XP. In fact, they all have less screen estate than your average notebook and if you expect to be doing a lot of WP, you really don’t want to in the first place. WP is not what they are for.

> No, we’re talking about perceptions here. I surmise that his perception
> is that because Linux runs on the lowest end netbook model, the 7",
> because Asus has mostly gone for XP in the 9" models, he thinks that he
> needs a better netbook, one with XP. In fact, they all have less screen
> estate than your average notebook and if you expect to be doing a lot of
> WP, you really don’t want to in the first place. WP is not what they are
> for.

Ah I see, so he wasn’t saying ‘I don’t want that’ to Linux, he was saying ‘I
don’t want that’ because it had a 7" screen. Makes sense. It’s kind of
like how PC makers always portray AMD systems as some sort of poor mans
option and spec them as anemic systems. Glad to see they’ve moved away from
that a bit.

Yes, and it doesn’t help that Asus put a anemic distro called Linpus on the 7" model. Even the name sounds like a disease to avoid. That’s why I suspect Asus wasn’t really serious about Linux. Of course the Linux community came up with heaps of much better distros in short order.

Asus put Xandros (which sounds like a sworn enemy of He-Man) on their netbooks. I never got along with it, but some report that it’s pretty good.

Acer put Linpus on theirs.

You seem to have ‘hit the nail on the head’ so to speak. If we start ranting about M$'s trickery we’ll ‘be here until the Cows come home’!
It’s incredibly annoying how elusive the Linux shipped computers are on Vendors websites.

Some more related news - close to a third of Dell’s net/smartbooks ship with Linux Dell Looks to Linux to Expand Netbook Presence - Business Center - PC World

hey microchip a bit of selective reading there

Linux-based netbooks made up about 5 percent of overall worldwide shipments during the last quarter

What it says is during certain quarters are preloaded so no closer to the real figure… for example maybe they only preload in 1 out of 4 quarters with linux…