I will not buy any Dell products.
I have long had problems with Dell products. There were machines where
the parts never worked at all, like the F disk and cdrom.
I still have a machine where the floppy disk will not work no matter what.
Not that I ever use it anymore. The machine was left here for dead after
the hard disk failed, and windoze went belly up.
On one machine where the cdrom was not working, it was not plugged in.
And even when it was plugged in, it was dead. Maybe that's why it was
not plugged in.
In Oct, 2010 I saw a NY Times article about a lawsuit that was filed
three years ago against Dell confirmed that the company was aware of and
continued to sell flawed PCs. About 12 million OptiPlex desktops between
2003 and 2005 shipped with mainboards capacitors that, according to e-mail
messages, Dell employees knew would fail within three years. Staff were
told to avoid acknowledging the mainboards were bad and downplayed
breakdowns, even when batches of 1,000 or more PCs (including those of
its eventual legal defense) failed at the hose of its eventual legal defense)
failed at the same time. (Later that number was changed to 18 million)
The stalling went so far that Dell at one point accused Internet service
firm AIT of simply working the systems too hard in a tight space,
according to the New York Times. Dell openly tried to upsell AIT to more
expensive systems rather than fix or replace the affected systems.
Dell eventually admitted to the issue and in 2005 set aside $300 million
to mend and replace computers, although it tried to downplay the effects
by saying the capacitors didn't cause data loss or pose a safety risk.
Many affected companies did, however, complain that they lost millions of
dollars of business as they were suddenly forced to repair or replace
systems all at once.
The problem wasn't unique to Dell and did affect system builders such as
Apple and HP. Producers of stand-alone mainboards like ASUS and MSI were
also affected. Most of these, however, were more active in addressing
complaints and either fixed systems more proactively or started extended
repair programs sooner.
Dell's supply chain has also been blamed for some of the faults. Its
system, which is still in practice today, relies on a just-in-time
assembly process that lets it get cheaper parts as they become available.
While leaner and more profitable, it exacerbated the problem by leaving
Dell with no easy solution to getting alternative mainboards where other
companies could swap them out sooner.
By Electronista Staff
computers, industry, Dell, HP, lawsuits, Apple, AIT
5 Feb 2011, ew wrote:
Is Dell a four letter word?
I'm just curious why it has not been suggested.
Personally I'm not a big fan of Dell, but their entire product line is
not junk. As suggested by others, getting business machines may be a
more reliable solution.
I just wanted to point out a crazy, sexy-cool lineup. The Dell Vostro
V130 model comes with Ubuntu 10.04. It's a nice portable machine with
great looks!
Check it out,
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vostro-v130/fs
Of course if you need more horsepower, and an optical drive they do have
other options. I had the pleasure of checking out the earlier version
almost two years ago, and I was green with envy. The machine just looks
NICE!
I also wanted to comment on the issues folks have had with sound. My
current laptop is dual booting Ubuntu 10.04 and WinXP. Sometimes I find
little or no sound in Ubuntu. My only fix has been to boot back in
Windows and adjust the volume, which I believe caused the issue in the
first place. I never tried booting a live CD to adjust the sound to
see if that would work for folks not dual booting. The laptop in
question is Toshiba Satellite U205-S5035. I has a hardware volume
control which is spring loaded, so I figure it is more electronic, than
a straight up rehostat.
Eric
On Thu, 2011-02-03 at 15:50 -0500, Anthony Acquanita wrote:
I've seen system76, zareason and the Thinkpads. Am I missing
anything? Anyone built a recent laptop with linux and can recommend
one?
Right now I'm leaning towards the systems76, either the Lumar or the Pangolin.
Thanks.
_______________________________________________
Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org
http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug
Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium
Feb 2 - Cancelled - Zimbra
Mar 2 - MHVLUG 8th Anniversary - Show and Tell
Apr 6 - Introduction to IPv6
_______________________________________________
Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org
http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug
Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium
Mar 2 - MHVLUG 8th Anniversary - Show and Tell
Apr 6 - Introduction to IPv6
May 4 - Inkscape
_______________________________________________
Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org
http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug
Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium
Mar 2 - MHVLUG 8th Anniversary - Show and Tell
Apr 6 - Introduction to IPv6
May 4 - Inkscape
