[SGVLUG] More about the Dell solution..

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

Well, the first part is navigating the phone menu until you reach a
"real" person, then the transcript goes something like this:

[Dell] What can I build for you today?
[me] A linux-based laptop
[Dell] <long pause>
[Dell] hmmm... Yes, I know we're going to offer that...

(which is kind of what I expected)  Long story short, it is only
"announced" at this point -- as I have an immediate need for a laptop,
this doesn't help me /today/, however his "best guess (that I won't hold
him to)" is to check back in 4 to 6 weeks (which is actually better than
I did expect)

Eventually, I pointed the salesman to here:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/category/1021.aspx

And he noted/noticed that the "Optiplex" and "lattitude" series are at
least /certified/ (for Novell/SuSE "SLED 10" (*)), but for "consumer"
(as announced) this would mean the "Inspiron" series would need to be in
that list as well.

Tom

(*) SLED: SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop -- equivalent to RedHat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL) I'd imagine...

P.s.  This link goes to the "bio" page for Mr. Dell:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/biographies/en/msd_c
omputers?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Where it points out what he uses at home and at work...