Linus Torvals switches from KDE to Gnome
According to Computer World
Does anyone care?
Having trouble with your new Dell computer? Who do you call?
1) Technical support
2) The local news
If you’re the women in this story the answer is #2.
A woman ordered a computer from Dell with Ubuntu Linux. Upon recipt of her computer, she became frightened and confused and called Dell. She claims Dell talked her out of having windows installed. (It’s far more likely that she was simply unwilling to pay for XP and MS Office and misrepresented the Dell employees assurances that Ubuntu will still meet all of her needs.)
She claims that she can’t ‘get online’ with Verizon DSL because the CD provided by Verizon doesn’t work under Linux. The disk in question is completly unnecessary. Had she tried to connect to the internet without the disk, she would have been successful. If she had any trouble, Verizon technical support would have gladly helped had she bothered to call.
She also didn’t think to call Madison Area Technical College, where she had signed up to take those online classes. Had she called, they’d have told her about this wonderful program (pre-installed on her computer, by the way) called OpenOffice.org that she could use in place of MS Word for writing her papers. Being a technical college, it’s likely they’d have helped her connect to the internet as well.
The news reporter, ever vigillant, called both Verizon and MATC. The response was the same in both cases: “Ubuntu linux? No Problem!”
Update: Apparently, in order to order a Dell computer with Ubuntu installed, you need to click through a page containing only this warning:
“The main thing to note is that when you choose open source you don’t get a Windows operating system. If you’re here by mistake and you are looking for a Dell PC with Windows, please use the following link.”
The buyer must then either “use the following link” or click “Shop for Ubuntu” or “Shop for FreeDOS”.
