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Would you like your notebook in pink or with Windows?
I have sort of a love-hate relationship with Dell. On one hand, I appreciate that they occasionally sell Ubuntu machines, but I am really sick of their avaliability games. The number of avaliable computers, and the options that go with them, changes randomly from day to day. For new readers, I am not a fan of these variations. Today, the selection has moved from annoying to almost comical.
If Dell did as much market research as asking one person, they could learn that people buying their Ubuntu computers are very largely:
- Tech-savvy,
- Smart,
- And male
Given these attributes, why on earth do you make your two non-netbook computers a laptop that costs about $60 more than the Windows version and a semi-discontinued laptop that comes in exactly one color: pink.
I’d be great if Linux users, and technologically-centered people in general, were more balanced in gender, and I believe we are getting there, but the reality is that Linux geeks are still mostly male. Heck, I’m not even sure if it has to do with gender. There is nothing wrong with pink, but I’m not sure I know anyone, male or female, who would actually buy a pink primary computer. How many Linux geeks do you know who love pink?
Of course if you don’t want a pink computer, you can of course buy the Insipron 15n, which offers a range of colors. Unfortunatley, you pay an extra $60 or so to have Ubuntu pre-installed. Since the vast majority of potential buyers are tech-savvy and reasonably smart, why wouldn’t they just buy the Windows version and install Ubuntu?
The bottom line: market research fail.
Open PC is a new project that aims to create and sell a Linux-based computer designed openly by Linux users.
This sort of idea is not new, but it is still interesting. It’s hard to know what companies like Dell are really going for with their Linux PCs, especiallly since their main business is based on Window PCs. With a community designed PC, though, the full attention is being put on making it a great machine for Linux, not a Windows machine that runs Linux.
There are also some issues, though. At this point, I simply don’t think entirely open collaboration is possible without a few leaders who make the final decisions.
It may or may not be Open PC, but community-designed computers may eventually be very successful, since they focus exclusively on LInux, not on other OSs.
Dell has begun shipping their Studio XPS 13 with Ubuntu 8.10, though the option seems to be appearing and disappearing from their website.
Two things are notable about this particular model with Ubuntu. First, Dell has opted for Ubuntu 8.10, rather than 8.04, making this the second model to get 8.10. This is interesting, because Dell very recently said they were going to stick with Ubuntu 8.04, since it is more stable. Still, I don’t mind seeing a newer version, though I do wish they would standardize on one version.
Second, instead of listing the Ubuntu version only on the special Ubuntu page, Ubuntu is an option, like with Dell’s netbooks, on the normal Studio XPS 13 page. This is great, since it means that Dell is putting Ubuntu where more people will see it, but I don’t understand why it isn’t also listed on the page that lists all the Ubuntu computers. This could just be a technical glitch, as I’m sure the appearance and disappearance of the Studio XPS with Ubuntu is, but I am running out of patience for website glitches with Dell.
It’s good to see another computer from Dell offered with Ubuntu, but I can’t help wondering why the 16″ version didn’t get the same option or why you can’t find it on the list of Ubuntu computers?
Your keyboard is disgusting. You, and probably other people’s, hands touch it every day, and those food crumbs don’t help either. If you have a cat that thinks the keyboard is an excellent place to sit, you will be amazed how much cat hair manages to get under the keys. Luckily, or unluckily, it’s fairly straight forward to clean your keyboard and remove all that cat hair.
Above is an example of how dirty a keyboard can get. On the left is the original dirt. The right side has already been cleaned.
The first step is to take plenty of pictures so you know how to put the keys back together. Also, make sure you know how to take your keys off and put them back on. Next, pull out all the keys without breaking everything.
Using some damp paper towels, remove all the dirt, crumbs, cat hair, etc. from the base of the keyboard. Keep in mind that letting water seep inside the keyboard could damage it..Depending on just how dirty your keyboard is, this could be very easy or very hard. If you have a pet, expect it to take some work, since pet hair doesn’t come up nicely with a damp towel.
Next you have to clean the keys themselves. These are usually just pieces of plastic, so dump them in a pan with water and a little bit of vinegar. Let them soak for a few minutes or stir them around. Then, take each one and rise it off in a bowl of plain water, removing any remaining dirt with a toothpick.
Let the keys dry for a while. As you wait, think about how much easier it would have been to spend $5 on a new keyboard. Anyway, the hardest part is done.
Once the keys have completely dried, begin reassembling them on your keyboard according to the pictures, your memory, and how you think they really should be. (The arrow keys look way cooler if they all point in the wrong direction.)
Enjoy your new, shiny old keyboard.
The size of removable storage is shrinking extremely quickly. Not long ago, removable storage meant CDs or a big external hard drive. Now, though, you can get a memory card the size of your fingernail and thinner than a penny that stores 16GB of data.
When it comes to external storage size (not capacity) most people agree smaller is better, but up to what point? Today’s storage devices are already easily losable and even more easily snapped. In a couple of years, the devices will be even smaller. When is small just too small?
It seems that we are reaching the physical limits of how small our data storage devices can be. The next step, then, has to be to eliminate the device alltogether. That’s where we are headed with the cloud.
Even when Dell just offered Ubuntu 8.04 on all of their systems, I suggested that it would make sense to update to the latest version. I checked their ever-changing selection of Ubuntu computers again, only to discover that the Ubuntu versions make even less sense.
Three out of the four computers currently available with Ubuntu have Ubuntu 8.04, just as it has been for over a year. One computer, though, now comes with Ubuntu 8.10. This change really doesn’t make any sense to me for the following reasons:
- Using different versions of Ubuntu on different computers is bound to create confusion.
- If one of your computers is going to have a more recent version, why not the most recent version, which would be 9.04?
- Releasing each computer with whatever Ubuntu release is most convenient is a horrible strategy, since it will lead to at least two or three versions around at the same time, each of which is slightly different than the others.
It would make so much more sense just to update all of the comptuers to the very latest version, rather than spreading different versions around. This move could cause a lot of confusion and is going in completely the opposite direction of Dell’s earlier announcement.
Finally the OS juggling games can stop and we can just have Ubuntu and Windows options on all of Dell’s computers from now on. Well, all of their netbooks, that is. One of the most annoying things about Dell is their seemingly random decisions about what computers are going to be offered with what OS. Apparently, though, Dell realized how annoying this was.
Dell’s new policy is, apparently, that all of their netbooks will be offered with the exact same hardware with your choice of Ubuntu or Windows. You don’t have to worry about the model you want being Windows only anymore.
This makes so much more sense than confusing customers with all sorts of games. My only question is why it took so long. And when they will apply this policy to all of their computers.
Everyone was excited when Dell announced they would sell Ubuntu computers, but every since it has been a downhill road. For one thing, Dell keeps randomly changing their selection. Today they have four computers on their Ubuntu site, by the end of this week they might have 7. Between random website glitches and actual changes, you can’t predict what machines they will be selling when you check.
Another issue is that there are some out of the box issues with some of their computers. I haven’t tried competing Ubuntu laptops, but it seems like they could fix these problems instead of making users fix them.
Dell needs to look at Ubuntu again and decide if they want to be in or out of the game. Right now Microsoft hates them for offering Ubuntu and Linux-users hate them for messing it up. If Dell is going to sell Ubuntu machines, they should put a little more time into testing and keep their offerings constant.
HP has announced their new ProBook business laptop line. The laptops feature an LED-backlit screen (14″, 15″, or 17″) and a choice of red or black (excuse me, “glossy merlot” or “noir”). More interestingly, though, they also feature the option of SuSe Linux pre-installed for $50 to $100 less than Vista.
The new ProBooks are one of HP’s first experiments with Linux on non-netbook end-user computers. Considering that the original Mini 2133 didn’t prove to be a huge success and they switched to Ubuntu rather than SuSe, it is surprising to me that HP would use SuSe on the new ProBooks. These are business notebooks, though, so it may simply be that most of their customers use SuSe.
HP’s ProBook is already being seen as a more consumer-oriented business laptop, so it will be interesting to see if HP intends to bring Linux to the home laptop line. I wouldn’t bet on it anytime soon, but I’d say there is a decent chance they will eventually bring Ubuntu to some of thier home PCs if the Linux ProBooks sell well.
TechCrunch Isn't the Only One Looking at Web Tablets
It looks like the people at TechCrunch (or whoever is working on it for them), have been working on a cheap touchscreen tablet for internet surfing and casual computer tasks. It looks like they might not be the only ones around, though.
GiiNii is working on an Android-powered half iPod Touch, half touchscreen web tablet device that will come in 4-inch and 7-inch screen versions. Obviously a 4-inch tablet will have very different uses from a larger tablet, but the idea is similar. Basically, it’s like a netbook with an even worse keyboard and a touchscreen. While that might not sound very attractive for writing anything of significant (or of any) length, it would be excellent for casual net-surfing where a mouse is really all you need.
It’s impossible to say for sure, but these web tablets are looking like a probable candidate to be the new netbooks, no matter if they turn out to be 3″ or 13″.