Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
Hi Barry, On 4 June 2010 16:13, e-mail b.drake b.dr...@ntlworld.com wrote: The e-mail I sent to Michael brought a reply from a guy (In Delhi?) asking for full details. I have this morning received the attached. I think it clarifies Dell UK position quite well. At least they state in writing that they ARE prepared to honour the hardware warranty when we have installed Ubuntu. We now need loads of Eurobuntians asking Dell UK to reinstate the Ubuntu machines Nice work! Thanks for following this through and letting us know, it's a rather good bit of news for a Friday afternoon! I had a little trouble reading the attachment, so here's the crux of the mail:- However, it is suggested that even if the systems are shipped with the Windows OS customers can change it to Ubuntu later, though dell would not support the Ubuntu OS issues, the hardware warranty will not be affected in anyway. Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On 04/06/10 16:13, e-mail b.drake wrote: Hi there ... The e-mail I sent to Michael brought a reply from a guy (In Delhi?) asking for full details. I have this morning received the attached. I think it clarifies Dell UK position quite well. At least they state in writing that they ARE prepared to honour the hardware warranty when we have installed Ubuntu. We now need loads of Eurobuntians asking Dell UK to reinstate the Ubuntu machines Barry Drake Asus said the same to me when I got a netbook from them. I emailed them about their warranty before I wiped Windows but they said it was fine. Just don't expect us to support the software. I think it would be a pretty poor show of any PC manufacturer to not warranty the hardware irrespective of what software is, or isn't, installed. Al I mentioned it in this blog post last year: http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2009/07/21/getting-your-microsoft-tax-refunded-1010-for-amazon-uk/ -- The Open Learning Centre http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 11:13 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: Hi there ... The e-mail I sent to Michael brought a reply from a guy (In Delhi?) asking for full details. I have this morning received the attached. I think it clarifies Dell UK position quite well. At least they state in writing that they ARE prepared to honour the hardware warranty when we have installed Ubuntu. We now need loads of Eurobuntians asking Dell UK to reinstate the Ubuntu machines Barry Drake Great work! What email address did you use? I can only find phone/chat/postal contacts for them. I'm saving your email for possible future use. :) Dianne -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
Hi Dianne . On 4 June 2010 11:45, Dianne Reuby pramc...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: Great work! What email address did you use? I can only find phone/chat/postal contacts for them. Someone on this list suggested writing to Dell CEO - Michael Dell ( mich...@dell.com) and my email was answered quickly by the guy in the reply I attached. I just got so frustrated by the lack of ways to make contact with Dell UK. I wonder if an official communication from Ubuntu UK asking to partner with Dell UK would help? We'll support the OS - you supply the hardware to our folk kind of approach might work I'm willing to write something, what do the folk here think? Regards, Barry Drake. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 15:59 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: I wonder if an official communication from Ubuntu UK asking to partner with Dell UK would help? We'll support the OS - you supply the hardware to our folk kind of approach might work I'm willing to write something, what do the folk here think? That's what irritated me most - Dell are at perfect liberty to supply any OS they want to ... but why does the Ubuntu site still drone on about their partnership with Dell, with links to the UK site, when it's no longer correct? Dianne -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 15:59 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: Hi Dianne . On 4 June 2010 11:45, Dianne Reuby pramc...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: Great work! What email address did you use? I can only find phone/chat/postal contacts for them. Someone on this list suggested writing to Dell CEO - Michael Dell (mich...@dell.com) and my email was answered quickly by the guy in the reply I attached. I just got so frustrated by the lack of ways to make contact with Dell UK. I wonder if an official communication from Ubuntu UK asking to partner with Dell UK would help? We'll support the OS - you supply the hardware to our folk kind of approach might work I'm willing to write something, what do the folk here think? You'd have to define the word support very precisely. Most large organisation understand support as having a call centre which can take customer calls 24/7 or at the very least Monday to Friday during office hours. Canonical can do that and I suspect already have that sort of talks with some hardware vendors (although maybe not Dell UK). A loose combination of individuals like the Ubuntu UK Loco team cannot do it this way. What could work is if the community was a second or third level support. This would mean that Dell would need to invest in some Linux/Ubuntu knowledge for their customer service so that they can act as first level support. Another option that could work would be for Dell to sell the hardware with Ubuntu pre-installed, include the Ubuntu manual [1] and add as an optional extra some Canonical support [2]. This would probably require an agreement between Dell and Canonical so that when a Ubuntu user calls the Dell support number, the support staff can redirect them to Canonical. On the other hand, Dell could very well sell their hardware with Ubuntu on it but say that they will only support the hardware, not the software and direct users to Canonical or Ubuntu UK for this. The risk here is that for issues for which it's not clear whether the issue is with the hardware or the software, you'd have users left in the lurch. So yes, lots of possibilities I think but it would require some goodwill on all sides. At the end of the day, what is important is that support works for the end user, whoever actually provides it. [1] http://ubuntu-manual.org/ [2] http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=528 Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 22:19 +0100, Dianne Reuby wrote: On Fri, 2010-06-04 at 22:14 +0100, Bruno Girin wrote: On the other hand, Dell could very well sell their hardware with Ubuntu on it but say that they will only support the hardware, not the software My son's friend bought a Dell with Win 7 recently - now everything he tries to run crashes; browser, word processor, solitaire. Dell have told him it's a software problem, so they can't help. :) That's always the risk in this case: the hardware vendor goes it's a software problem, nothing we can do about it then the software vendor goes it's a hardware problem, contact the hardware vendor, etc. I've been through this so many times when dealing with several suppliers that have to work together in providing a solution, it's frightening. The only way I've found to break the cycle is for one of the sides to help the user identify the issue and gather evidence. In practice, maybe it's an opportunity for the Ubuntu community to offer better support than what's available for Windows by helping users getting to the bottom of their problems rather than say it's a hardware problem. And maybe it's an opportunity to migrate your son's friend's Dell to Ubuntu ;-) Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 15:18 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: On 28 May 2010 14:21, Bruno Girin brunogi...@gmail.com wrote: There you go: http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html Wonderful! Thanks for that. I've e-mailed Michael Dell with a very polite e-mail, and I've bookmarked the page. Now I'll wait eagerly for a reply. If there's anything of interest I'll copy it here. Thanks, Barry Drake. And I've emailed Canonical, to suggest they update the website as Dell don't supply Ubuntu machines in the UK. Those on the US site look quite nice ... Dianne -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Dianne Reuby pramc...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 15:18 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: On 28 May 2010 14:21, Bruno Girin brunogi...@gmail.com wrote: There you go: http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html Wonderful! Thanks for that. I've e-mailed Michael Dell with a very polite e-mail, and I've bookmarked the page. Now I'll wait eagerly for a reply. If there's anything of interest I'll copy it here. Thanks, Barry Drake. And I've emailed Canonical, to suggest they update the website as Dell don't supply Ubuntu machines in the UK. Those on the US site look quite nice ... As far as I can see, they do, and your actions are very unhelpful. Here are the results of going to www.dell.co.uk and searching for the single word ubuntu: http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=genc=ukl=encs=k=ubuntucat=allx=0y=0 Note, no less than 7 different models. -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Saturday 29 May 2010 15:10:40 Liam Proven wrote: On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Dianne Reuby pramc...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 15:18 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: On 28 May 2010 14:21, Bruno Girin brunogi...@gmail.com wrote: There you go: http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html Wonderful! Thanks for that. I've e-mailed Michael Dell with a very polite e-mail, and I've bookmarked the page. Now I'll wait eagerly for a reply. If there's anything of interest I'll copy it here. Thanks, Barry Drake. And I've emailed Canonical, to suggest they update the website as Dell don't supply Ubuntu machines in the UK. Those on the US site look quite nice ... As far as I can see, they do, and your actions are very unhelpful. Here are the results of going to www.dell.co.uk and searching for the single word ubuntu: http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=genc=ukl=encs=k=ubuntucat=a llx=0y=0 Note, no less than 7 different models. Have you actually tried clicking on them though? Most of them only have the option of selecting Windows XP or 7, as far as I can see the only 2 that have Ubuntu on them are the Latitude 2100 and 2110. -- Registered Linux User #466407 http://counter.li.org -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Sat, 2010-05-29 at 15:10 +0100, Liam Proven wrote: As far as I can see, they do, and your actions are very unhelpful. Here are the results of going to www.dell.co.uk and searching for the single word ubuntu: http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=genc=ukl=encs=k=ubuntucat=allx=0y=0 Note, no less than 7 different models. But if you select any, the only OS offered is Win 7. A sales rep told me that they no longer supply Ubuntu pre-installed, and that if I installed it my hardware would lose it's guarantee. Dianne -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Dianne Reuby pramc...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: On Sat, 2010-05-29 at 15:10 +0100, Liam Proven wrote: As far as I can see, they do, and your actions are very unhelpful. Here are the results of going to www.dell.co.uk and searching for the single word ubuntu: http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=genc=ukl=encs=k=ubuntucat=allx=0y=0 Note, no less than 7 different models. But if you select any, the only OS offered is Win 7. A sales rep told me that they no longer supply Ubuntu pre-installed, and that if I installed it my hardware would lose it's guarantee. Ahhh. OK. I think that could very readily be challenged legally, and I am sure they'd back down before actually going to court, but OK, fair enough. -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On 29 May at 15:23, Mark Fraser ubu...@mfraz.orangehome.co.uk wrote: On Saturday 29 May 2010 15:10:40 Liam Proven wrote: On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Dianne Reuby pramc...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 15:18 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: On 28 May 2010 14:21, Bruno Girin brunogi...@gmail.com wrote: There you go: http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html Wonderful! Thanks for that. I've e-mailed Michael Dell with a very polite e-mail, and I've bookmarked the page. Now I'll wait eagerly for a reply. If there's anything of interest I'll copy it here. Thanks, Barry Drake. And I've emailed Canonical, to suggest they update the website as Dell don't supply Ubuntu machines in the UK. Those on the US site look quite nice ... As far as I can see, they do, and your actions are very unhelpful. Here are the results of going to www.dell.co.uk and searching for the single word ubuntu: http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=genc=ukl=encs=k=ubuntucat=a llx=0y=0 Note, no less than 7 different models. Have you actually tried clicking on them though? Most of them only have the option of selecting Windows XP or 7, as far as I can see the only 2 that have Ubuntu on them are the Latitude 2100 and 2110. Agreed and I took the order to the stage of Add to Basket (with Ubuntu 9.04) and this was accepted. So the above statement of Dell don't supply Ubuntu machines in the UK is false, much as it might be very few Ubuntu machines. -- Tim Powys-Lybbe t...@powys.org for a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On 28/05/10 18:09, e-mail b.drake wrote: Hi there . I'm staying with friends in the US at the moment, so although I've been following the list, I haven't been writing of late. I just made a lengthy effort to research Dell on their web sites. First it seems to be impossible to contact Dell by e-mail on the UK site. Errors come up every time. Second, Dell USA still lists a range of machines running Ubuntu including the various netbooks and laptops that they listed in the UK until recently. I really want to shout at someone about this, and will probable send a snailmail when I get back home. Does anyone here have a contact among Dell staff, or any suggestions as to how to get a complaint about this into a place where it might be heard? My own feelings at the moment are that I'm rapidly going off the idea of buying from Dell ever again - and my latest purchase is my forth Dell machine. Probably not significant in their terms, but I'd still like to find a way of complaining audibly. It would be helpful if Dell announced publicly We no longer support Linux in the Uk because There are two items of validated hardware shown for 10.04 http://webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/list/?release=10.04%20LTScategory=Desktop Dell Inc Certified Inspirion 580 Desktop PC (x86)10.04 LTS Certified Optiplex 360Desktop 64-bit PC (x86_64) 10.04 LTS However I could not find a way to get anything other than Windows on the Inspiron 580, and the Optiplex does not seem to be available. -- alan cocks Ubuntu user -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 13:09 -0400, e-mail b.drake wrote: Hi there . I'm staying with friends in the US at the moment, so although I've been following the list, I haven't been writing of late. I just made a lengthy effort to research Dell on their web sites. First it seems to be impossible to contact Dell by e-mail on the UK site. Errors come up every time. Second, Dell USA still lists a range of machines running Ubuntu including the various netbooks and laptops that they listed in the UK until recently. I really want to shout at someone about this, and will probable send a snailmail when I get back home. Does anyone here have a contact among Dell staff, or any suggestions as to how to get a complaint about this into a place where it might be heard? My own feelings at the moment are that I'm rapidly going off the idea of buying from Dell ever again - and my latest purchase is my forth Dell machine. Probably not significant in their terms, but I'd still like to find a way of complaining audibly. It would be helpful if Dell announced publicly We no longer support Linux in the Uk because There you go: http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html And the good thing about this list is that it specifies when the address was last verified. It also has some good advice on how to word your email. Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu on Dell (revisited) ....
On 28 May 2010 14:21, Bruno Girin brunogi...@gmail.com wrote: There you go: http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html Wonderful! Thanks for that. I've e-mailed Michael Dell with a very polite e-mail, and I've bookmarked the page. Now I'll wait eagerly for a reply. If there's anything of interest I'll copy it here. Thanks, Barry Drake. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
