Dell is going to start shipping machines with Ubuntu pre-installed.

And lucrative support contracts for a "reasonable" price, I bet.

Rand, check this out:
http://spot.livejournal.com/268191.html
Obviously there's a shadow of sour grapes, but still.

Maybe this will induce Micro$oft to produce software with slightly less security holes than the average pair of fishnet tights.

Atleast they have truth in advertising, they called their mobile OS wince.

Yay, so we can go from installing a million security patches to a million synaptic packages.

Don't get me wrong I'm having a good time with Ubuntu Drapper which has breathed new life into my P3 Coppermine box as a really good internet browsing machine. But, an O/S that requires someone to know how many lines of resolution their monitor supports and where exactly to input that information into xorg.conf isn't really ready for prime time I don't think. Everything was fine with the initial install but once I swapped out the video card. Oh boy. If this is something they have improved upon in 7.0x then I guess my point is moot.

There are just too many little configuration files all over the place in linux. I get tired head trying to figure out which configuration line needs to be set with that permission and "Oh, thats a known bug with that package, download this one from this other super secret repository" blah blah blah. I guess for some people they like dinking with O/S's in their spare time instead of playing games -- "Ubuntu the detective series - The case of the Mplayer install".

Fletcher said: Maybe this will induce Micro$oft to produce software with slightly less security holes than the average pair of fishnet tights.

What a crock. Anyone else with an OS (stolen or not) with a few billion in the bank will become a target for virus makers. Gates made a fortune and people hate him for it. Apple is making headway in the markets and guess what? Ipods got a virus...Someone succeeded in the Hack a Mac competition. LINUX may be open source, but if it comes to someone's hit list, it'll get nailed too.

There's only one synaptics package, and at least on Fedora the installer adds it automatically. I happen to know because this Dell 1501 has one. Either Josh just doesn't know what he's talking about, or he was bit by a pack of rabid independent packagers in his distro.