Gotta love some of the things Dell does...

- The introduction of Dell computers with AMD processors (Dell was probably paid by Intel to eliminate competition, still a good move to have offered AMD in the end)

- The push for Linux to appear on Dell computers in the near future, as a result of customer demand.

- And more recently, they're planning on offering XP for longer despite attempts by Microsoft to phase it out.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6575089.stm)

I don't know if those three things are really that valid, it could just be a PR stunt - but at least they're taking a unique approach. Sounds like XP will only be available on a few models, but that's better than not offering it at all. Consumers have a right to choose their OS, and its good that Dell is listening to people; at least to some extent. Personally I don't think they will achieve much in regards to offering XP... if a computer retailer takes a dislike to Microsoft, then they won't last long due to dodgy licenses.

We all know that Dell sucks if you want a decent computer and we all know their customer support sucks, but if there's a company that listens to its customers while defying a huge monopoly - then I'm happy :)



I don't know who Michael Silver is, but he sounds like a dumbass. People don't want the "latest and greatest" - they want stability and support. I find Microsoft's comment even more entertaining, apparently only a small minority want XP. So, according to them, the majority of consumers want Vista, DRM, less money and the US government potentially spying on their computer.

Hahahaha, Vista is just another one of those things that exists solely to make money. Hardly anyone wants it, but Microsoft is still happy to ram it down everyones throats. If Microsoft valued customers instead of money, then they would have made XP properly and we'd still be able to use that. I'm glad to see Dell defying this forced upgrade, good s*** eh?

Depends what you buy and how you configure it. And some of their monitors are at least very good (for the price).

They still do.

It's just that the 'latest' doesn't always automatically make it 'greatest'. In that case, people will need to make a choise between one or the other...

Yeah. It's getting to the point where you start feeling sorry for making fun of people who bought a Dell!

Dell? Don't get me started!

Let's just say that I have only ever had bad experiences

I asked them for an in car adapter for the Dell laptop which I purchased from them, so I could use it in the car.

Over the next 12 months they did everything they could to frustrate me.

I telephoned them about 20 times to explain exactly what I wanted. I emailed them, I left customer support tickets on their web site, I spoke to people in technical support and customer support. I eventually threatened them with Watchdog - they just said ok then...

All I wanted was a power adapter for the car to power my new Dell laptop.

They sent me one with the original order, but it was the wrong one - my laptop needed a higher wattage unit.

Dell were generally polite and yet so stupid... over the next 12 months they sent me many 240 volt mains adapters! Everytime spoke to someone they said they knew what I meant abut still sent me a mains adapter - they must have had a bunch left over that year!

I never got the adapter :( and now the laptop has decided not to work properly either (outside its guarantee of course).

I then did a project for a client. I recommended one pc vendor, and said whatever you do don't buy a Dell. They bought a Dell - it was a high spec PC, 3.0 GHz but booted much more slowly than my 5 year old Mesh (1.9 Athlon). It was underpowered for the job in hand even though the components should have been ok.

The Dell failed after about 3 months.

Under powered - under whelming quality - un-reliable -undesirable - Dell

IPete2.

I wouldn't buy Dell - period

Besides one Intel Mac in our office (my machine, running Vista), all the other desktop computers and workstations are Dell machines. They are good office working horses and so far, Dell´s support has been nothing but great and fast. I gave them a call in the afternoon at around 4pm that a 30" display had a problem. The next morning at nine o'clock I had a replacement. A notebook display went bye-bye. The next morning a technician was there and replaced it. A hard disk died. The next day I got a new one. (We only pay for next-business-day service, in case you wonder.)

In the server room, I have a couple of HP ProLiants - they were all DOA (dead on arrival), one even had to be replaced twice. It took me 2 weeks with the HP support before they finally accepted that the machine was junk and sent me a replacement. We actually pay for 4-hour-same-business-day service. Now what does that tell me abot HP?

The good old days of ever-lasting IBM hardware are over. The hardware that you buy today WILL fail, it's only a queston of WHEN, not IF. What counts then is the reliability of speed of the service. And from my experience I can tell that Dell's business support is doing a very good job, and HP's business support just sucks.

Years ago, I also bought a Dell for my privat use once. Never had a problem with that machine and I still think it was worth every single penny.
I also bought a Gericom and a Toshiba notebook once, and in both cases the service of the companies was shitty as hell. Toshiba did not even provide Windows NT, 2000 or XP drivers for that satellite notebook. At least not in Germany, I had to dig it out on some very well hidden remote server in Asia.

Now I'm only using Apple computers at home, but I cannot yet say anything about their service. None of the machines has failed in the last two years. ;-)

Well I have a mate that bought one of those XPS (or whatever) "Alienkiller" gaming Laptops, and while the specs where better than my Alienware laptop, the performance wasn't.

Damned! When I sent the TabletPC powerbrick in for replacement, I got sent back a powerbrick without a mains cable. They told me to use the one from the old powerbrick - I told them that I couldn't because it was part of the powerbrick I'd sent in. The really wierd part is that the powerbrick was sent from Germany and took nearly 2 weeks to get here, the cable was sent from Hong Kong and got here in 3 days.

If Dell make a Linux certified Laptop, I'll be getting one of those - otherwise I'll be getting a Mac when the Alienware needs replacement.

I had 3 Dells, a pentium pro desktop, a pentium II desktop and a Pentium M laptop, all of them went to my parents. They are using these 3 machines daily(for office works) and they are all working perfectly, I never had any trouble. After these generations of computers, I assembled my machines from components and many of these components died, I see it as being related more to the current technology than to a brand "quality", after all they are all using similar components.

Apple computers are made by Asus, 15" powerbooks are plagued by issues, 17" current macbook pro aren't, first XPS laptop was crap, second generation runs fine.

I select always a good processor, currently the best is Intel Core without any doubt, even if its predecessor the P-IV was really unreliable. AMD in Dells is therefore not really big news for me (although Sempron is nice for servers). But I really want to see how they will manage Linux.

2.8 ghz, 128 mb of ram, 40 gig HD, and CD-RW.. 4 years ago. $300. Nuff said. I needed a new PC fast for school, Dell had the cheapest option by far. And it wasn't bad 4 years ago.

Additionally. I upgraded the ram, Had linux installed on it, Have 2 copies of XP installed on it now, and no matter what BS I toss at it, it won't break. I've had my 60 gig HD I bought 7 years ago in here.

I don't know what the Dell customer service is like, because I've never had any problems. Which I can't say for any other computer my family has owned (aside from my Dad's newest one, which is also a Dell)

I think people bust on Dell because it is cool to bust on them, because they prefer to do the work themself, and because they like to mess with the guts of their machine all the time. Dells are perfect for most people, in that they tend to work quite well right out of the box, and they are really good about dealing with most problems... They aren't good at dealing with problems that have nothing to do with what they did. Ie... Why your top-of-the-line brand new motherboard isn't working in your 3 year old Dell.

We have had a few Dell's and I couldn't complain about them.

On the AMD front... I think this is more a reaction to avoid a lawsuit, so they can't take any Qdos on that. On the XP/Linux front... good for them. WORD! Only question is, where's the viable alternative to Vista? I'm going to hang with XP as long as possible, but then what?

There isn't one. That's what Monopoly means.

Doh!

> If Microsoft valued customers instead of money, then they would have made XP properly and we'd still be able to use that.

Where have I heard this before, oh yeah.

2000 to XP
win98 to 2000
win95 to win98
win3ish to win95

(WinME skipped since it really was the wort of the line)

Actually noone was forced to upgrade from Win98 to Win2000. Win2000 was a "corporate" OS, most normal people upgraded from Win98 straight to WinXP.

On the contrary, dell are vey very good compared to similar sized rivals (hp, packard bell, acer etc...) especially online support, you type in the service tag and you can find out EXCActly what is in your machine and the drivers for it. Do that with other brands and you get several possible options.

I work in an it dept where we use dells and hps. The dells are a dream to work with, from rma, taking apart and problems in general.

Actually most normal people moved from Win98 to WinME, then to Win98. The PC my family brought in 2000 came with WinME. I was skeptical of getting WinME then, and wanted Win98 instead, but my brother convinced me otherwise with the assumption that it was better.

I would really like to know what features Windows Vista offers over WinXP. The 'latest and greatest' argument is obviously not getting Microsoft anywhere anymore. I see no reason to fork out money for a new operating system when XP is doing just fine so far.

You must not live in the UK then. Most PC shops here simply refused to sell PC's with ME on it. Almost as soon as ME was released, they went back to selling machines with 98SE preinstalled.

In my experience, so does Dell -- I've run into quite a few cases where I was presented with three different graphical drivers, 4 sound card drivers and 2 network drivers to pick from after entering the servicetag. Still trial-and-error at times.

But their on-site support and replacement deals are great -- as long as you're willing to pay for the warranty stuff, there are very few problems. It's just that the average home user tends to skip out on 'paying extra' for the higher level of service, and ends up taking a gamble.

Like any large corporation does? Face it, all companies are in business to make money, not friendships.

Not all companies - only publicly traded ones.

True. After all, it isn't the customers that are really filling their pockets, its the investors.

But things will swing around soon enough. Microsoft will find themselves not making what money they expected from Vista, and their investors will stop investing in them. Then Microsoft will be forced to make some decisions and changes - sometimes drastic.

*cough* a Microsoft OS which is based on a UNIX kernel */cough* ;) ;)

... anyone else feel that vienna is just a little too early to be just another trainwreck? Its a UNIX kernel based OS, surely????

Was this recently, I think they may have changed the system. It always seems to know exactly what the pc has when we have been using it. You can even look up the make and model of harddisk (using the part numbers).

Although saying that, mabe the professional system is better than the one for home users, im not sure :/ we always use the 'large corporate monster' choice on the website.

Their home user models change parts from time to time, whereas the business models tend to use the same parts for the duration of that model.

So if a home model has changed motherboards once or twice, they have to provide drivers for a lot of components.

In my experience, Dell has generally sucked hardware wise (particularly in their laptop department), their home user support poor, but their business support remarkable.

Well, I ran into it two weeks ago, but the machine itself was probably ~2 years old at that point, so they may be better now. :-?