Michael Dell, chairman of
Dell, says he believes in offering Linux on the desktop, server and workstation. What he doesnt believe in, for now, is giving Linux full support on the desktop.
In an exclusive interview, Dell explained his companys Linux desktop strategy to DesktopLinux.coms Steven J. Vaughan Nichols.
"People are always asking us to support Linux on the desktop, but the question is, Which Linux are you talking about?" Dell asked.
"If we say we like Ubuntu, then people will say we picked the wrong one. If we say we like and support Ubuntu, Novell, Red Hat and Xandros, then someone would ask us, Why dont you support Mandriva?
"The challenge we have with picking one is that we think wed disenchant the other distributions supporters."
Click here to read more about Dells ambiguous relationship with the Linux desktop.
"Its not that there are too many Linux desktop distributions," Dell said, "its that theyre all different, they all have supporters and none of them can claim a majority of the market.
"If you look at DistroWatch, youll see zillions of these distributions. Which one should we do? And, everyone keeps telling us that they want different distributions. So, our conclusion is to do them all and let the customer decide."
Novells CTO says Linux desktops are ripe for adoption. Read more here.
So it is, Dell continued, that "on the desktop we have the nSeries, so that the user can pick the Linux he wants."
Read the full story on DesktopLinux.com: Mr. Dell and Desktop Linux
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