Dell to sell in Officeworks, but no Linux PCs, thank you

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Angus Kidman01 May 2008, 1:16 PM

Dell is dipping into the retail market in Australia by selling machines through Officeworks, but the PC giant doesn't believe there's enough consumer demand to sell Linux PCs.


Under a partnership announced this morning, Dell will sell through Officeworks' 104 stores nationwide -- a major shift from its previous direct model of selling online and by telephone (and through the occasional at-risk kiosk). However, when it comes to the 10 models that will be available through the stores , you'll have just one operating system choice: Windows Vista.

"At this stage it's Vista only," Evan Williams, general manager for consumer sales and marketing at Dell South Asia, said during a telephone briefing on the plans. "We'll evaluate on the XP side." (For its recent revision of its Vestron small business line, Dell is allowing customers to downgrade their licence and purchase a machine with Windows XP already installed.)

Nor is Dell planning to extend its Inspiron notebook line featuring Ubuntu rather than Windows, which has been successful in the US and Europe, into Australia. "We've got no plans at this stage in the consumer portfolio, but we are looking at it closely," Williams said.

Selling Linux machines has proven successful for other major retailers. Myer sold out of Asus' Eee PC when the machine went on sale exclusively through its stores last year (Asus now sells the machine through a variety of stores). Williams said that feedback from Officeworks customers might help determine the future viability of a Linux line for Australian buyers.

Williams acknowledged that it could be harder to sell some machines in an online environment, especially to inexperienced consumers. "The notebook market is the real strength and it's driving a lot of the growth. People are more and more conscious about the design of the product."

Dell declined to comment on whether notebooks and desktops bought at Officeworks would be cheaper than its online offerings, although several of the models sold in stores will not be available on its site.

Prices for in-store machines will range from $999 to $1800, Officeworks general manager marketing and merchandising David Oakley said. Some Officeworks stores will also allow customers to place online orders and customise their machines. The machines will go on sale from Monday May 5.


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AfterBurner_1 (New user):

this looks like a cautious start which is not unexpexcted but, other lines of Dell's products like monitors to be purchased seperately.

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Me In Oz (Advanced member):

As I have said in the past, this is just another example of Linux's dimunitive share of the OS market. No one wants the hassle !
No one wants the non-existent support ! No one wants to trawl through umpteen million forums for help ! People just want a machine that they can plug in and use and not to have to chase scripts, mods and emulators to run their favourite apps.
I worked for Myers during the first eeePc release and let me tell you that we sent quite a few back for supplier credit !
I believe that mini PC's with XP are doing a bit better (not much) !

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Me In Oz (Advanced member):

That should get some of the Linux fanboys to register and post :)

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manny (New user):

not every linux user is a fanboy, i just migrated to ubuntu 5 days ago.

yea is not that easy to get used to since i been using windows for 10 years...

But am liking it !

now i know my next laptop will have it pre-installed.

sorry but am not going back to spyware/malware/virus/keylogger/trojan/registry-bloat/worm/etc. hell

by your comments it seems you are a windows fanboy. You seem to hate linux for some reason...

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Me In Oz (Advanced member):

Never ever said I hated Linux or any other OS. My argument has always been that Linux has such small appeal that most, if not all, of our customers stay well clear of it. I now run Vista for most everything and my wife works with a Mac for her publishing work (which I maintain).
My past experiences the Linux distros (RedHat, OpenSuse, Mandrake, Fedora and finally limited use of Ubuntu) have been absolute nightmares !!! ...... Drivers for my network, video, ausio cards come rushing back like a bad dream ...... Yukkkkkkkk !

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Tin (Advanced member):

You must have one of the world's weirdest collections of hardware if you had trouble with network and video. Audio can be slightly tricky, especially with cheap onboard stuff, but usually it works with issues like missing mixer controls (rather than outright not work).

In my experiences, it's often EASIER to get regular everyday devices to work in Linux than Windows. Usually just works out of the "box". It's only the more strange hardware that has issues, and that's generally down to the hardware vendor, not the OS (same issues would come up if you bunged the same device into a Mac).

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Tin (Advanced member):

Pfft. What bull crap!
Trawl millions of forums for support? Now remind me... How much support do you get for Windows when it craps itself? At least with Linux you find the answer, instead of collection of people saying "Stuffed if I know what happened".

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Me In Oz (Advanced member):

In our retail role MS (support) have gone out of their way to be helpful and personally, I have always received an answer from Vista support :) Sometimes the answer may not be helpful but at least they reply !

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Tin (Advanced member):

In your retail role? How's that help anyone who isn't a retailer?
Besides, if you are a retailer selling a Dell Linux product, I think you'll find Dell will do the support required as far as the product they sell.

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Raindog (Cornerstone member):

Myers for PC Sales? That's akin to ordering your shoes from a florist, or grocery shopping at Target. What you've mistaken for fan boys are more likely just a few random examples of the chronically bewildered.

As for the DELL/Officeworks deal it will be interesting to see how it continues, just DELL pitching at another sales channel.

I don't see too much of an issue with Vista only from OW, I doubt anyone switched on productively use Linux would be purchasing that way. And the credit card set isn't likely to be doing too much research before their next catalogue driven impulse buy.

I've been experiencing a steady improvement in Dells online delivery so I can't see me wanting to do battle with some sales droid when I have a much more viable option 24hrs a day.

So best of luck at the retail end Dell and don't stop considering further Linux options, there is scope for lots more.

BTW, what's a Vestron? could you be confusing this with Vostro?


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tranzz (New user):

If you have any idea of what your doing, Linux is amazing. Besides it being the most secure OS out there, distributions are constantly trying to make the OS's more and more "works out of the box." Support you say? The entire Linux community, no matter the distro, are always glad to help. Distro's give out patches/new releases far faster than I have ever seen Windows/MS. OS wise, Linux(theres a good number of great distros, its all according to what your general purpose is (there is many distros specifically made for certain purposes))>Mac OS X > WinXP > Vista.

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shrike (User):

Dell is doing what they think is best for their business, and no one can blame them for that, especially as the kind of people who buy a pc from a store like Officeworks probably have no idea what linux is. If you really want to use linux on your new dell then just install it over Vista when you get it home.

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