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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 29: Letter to Dell - Linux on Dell Hardware </TITLE>
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <hr> <P>
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<H1 align="center"><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
<a href="./lg_toc29.html">The Answer Guy</a>
<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
</A></H1> <BR>
<H4 align="center">By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:answerguy@ssc.com">answerguy@ssc.com</a><BR>
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
<p><hr><p>
<p>The original <a href="http://lwn.net/980514/dell.html">Open Letter to
Dell</a> was posted to <a href="news:comp.os.linux.advocacy"
>comp.os.linux.advocacy</a> and copied to
<a href="http://www.lwn.net/">Linux Weekly News</a> and
<a href="http://www.dell.com/">Dell Computer Corporation</a>.</p>
<hr width="40%">
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Letter to Dell - Linux on Dell Hardware </H3>
<p><strong>From Rafael on 10 May 1998</strong></p>
<p><strong>
Thanks Denis for your letter to DELL.
<br><br>
I bought some Dell stocks this year. Not much but that puts me in an
awkward situation. Dell is doing well but it realy bothered me that they
officialy issued that statement about Linux.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
As a shareholder, even of only a few shares, your message
will probably get far more attention than mine.
<br><br>
I would love to see your letter to them, expressing your
concerns both as a customer <strong>and</strong> as a stockholder.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
I wonder if we could find other investors, Linux users, admins perhaps and
put a little pressure from that position. That would be even more
effective if we do it openly on the web.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I agree. You want to be even more "positive" in your tone
since you actually have a financial stake in their future.
<br><br>
You want to emphasize how big a market you believe the
Linux community to be --- point out that the first major
company to offer Linux will probably remain at the top
of that market for a long time, etc.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
I know that Dell signed a letter with other CEO's in support of MS. What a
bummer.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I personally can understand their official statements of support.
From an official standpoint they claim that MS places no
contractual restrictions on their choice of software bundles.
<br><br>
We can presume that there are veiled, subtle "issues" which
suggest that any support for alternatives might result in
unusual delays and backlogs or Dell's order fulfillment and
possibly delays in the negotiation of new contracts and terms
for future versions of MS products. It doesn't take much of
this from a key supplier or customer (and MS probably does
buy a large number of Dell workstations) to have a chilling
effect.
<br><br>
Unfortunately none of those assertions are likely to be
revealed in court --- and there's simply too much "plausible
deniability" for them to have any effect in any event.
<br><br>
I'm not sure I can characterize it as a "bummer" --- since
it is so utterly predictable.
<br><br>
What we want to do is to recast Linux as an "opportunity" for
a "win-win" situation for Dell <strong>and</strong> MS. I think
we can do this by pointing out that Dell offering "fine print"
alternatives (No OS included, and Linux) will give the
<strong>appearance</strong> of greater competition in the marketplace.
<br><br>
My plan is to outline this strategy to MS execs (I have a
mole). Convince them that purely cosmetic notes in the
marketing materials from Compaq will get the DoJ off their
back and give them the ammo, in the arena of public opinion,
to say: "Look! People have choices, and they still pick us
almost all the time. The free market is working."
<br><br>
(This is bound to be more effective for them than that
pathetic attempt to fabricate a "ground swell of grassroots
support" --- as was reported by the L.A. Times recently).
</blockquote>
<hr width="40%">
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Dell & Linux</H3>
<p><strong>From Khimenko Victor on 10 May 1998</strong></p>
<p><strong>
You must know this already but just in case: in
<a href="http://linuxwww.db.erau.edu/mail_archives/linux-kernel/"
>linux-kernel</a> list there are quite a few questions like this:
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
While I do read lkern -- I queue up the digests for
a week or so at a time and binge on them -- so I hadn't
noticed these, yet.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
<table width="90%" border="1"><tr align="left">
<td bgcolor="#CCFFFF"><p>~~~
<br>I installed linux kernel 2.1.89 on a Dell with 2 Pentium Pros.
But now "<tt>ps</tt>" fails?! Says "No processes available".
During boot, I get error messages about various demons [sendmail,
syslog...] trying to start, and this message gets printed for each
demon. I think the demons are actually running, because [eg] if I
try to start syslog, it tells me that an instance is running.
<br><br>
I looked in <tt>/proc</tt>, and things seem ok. Eg
"<tt>cat /proc/cpuinfo</tt>" works, and shows both cpus.
<br><br>
Before this, I had already successfully installed 2.1.89 on an
identically configured machine. ps worked there. And I'd also
installed 2.1.89 on 3 Dells, containing 4 cpus each.
<br><br>
Any suggestions?
<br>~~~
</p></td>
</tr></table>
<p>or this</p>
<table width="90%" border="1"><tr align="left">
<td bgcolor="#CCFFFF"><p>~~~
<br>I tried your io_apic.c fix on an Intel Alder
4x PPRO system (same motherboard,etc. as DELL PE-6100) and it had
no effect: boot dies after first line about Uncompressing...
OK booting...
<br><br>
I posted the log of a boot of 2.1.88 on the Alder earlier. Is there
anything else I can tell you? By the way, 2.1.88 + aic7xxx 5.0.8 patch
is VERY stable on these systems, and nothing else is right now.
Also, I compiled 2.196 for a DELL 4200 (2x Pentium II) and it runs
fine.
<br>~~~
</p></td>
</tr></table>
<p>or this</p>
<table width="90%" border="1"><tr align="left">
<td bgcolor="#CCFFFF"><p>~~~
<br><dl><dd><em>Hi,
<br><br>
there's been some talk recently about patching 2.1.9x to support
dual PCI busses. Does this mean that the 2.0.x series doesn't
support it? If so, I might be in trouble... I've just ordered a
dual PII-333 Dell server which has dual PCI 2.1 busses on it.
This machine is to become our core mail, news, dns server for my
network, and so I want to run a relatively stable server (it's
replacing an aging Sun Sparc 5 which hasn't crashed for over year).
<br><br>
Am I going to have to risk the development series on a core server?
Or will I be lucky....!
<br><br>
In the worst case, could I install a 2.0.x series and run it with a
single bus (cards on the second not recognised) ??</em></dl>
Dual PCI busses should run fine with 2.0.x kernels as they locate PCI
devices using the PCI BIOS which of course should handle the dual bus
case. Since 2.1.9x we try to access the hardware directly in order to
circumvent PCI BIOS bugs. Anyway, in 2.0.x /proc/pci will show only
the first bus.
<br>~~~
</p></td>
</tr></table>
<br><br>
At least this means that some of Dell customers are using Linux
<img src="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":-)" width="20" height="24"
align="absmiddle">) And not only for jokes (if you'll just try to play
some games with Linux you'll not going to buy dual Pentium II or 4x
Pentium Pro server, right?). Thay just not tries to bother Dell with
their problems since they are sure that Linux is not supported by Dell
anyway...
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
That is the point of my message. We are somewhat self-sufficient
and that is great for our userbase and developers. However,
as consumers we must communicate our requirements back to
the vendors --- and we must do so proactively.
<br><br>
In other words every
<a http://www.unix.org/">Unix</a>,
<a href="http://www.linux.org/">Linux</a>,
<a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a>,
<a href="http://www.netbsd.org">NetBSD</a>,
<a href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a>,
<a href="http://www.sun.com/software/Products/x86.html"
>Solaris x86</a>, and
<a href="http://www.sco.com/">SCO</a> user must tell
<a href="http://www.dell.com/">Dell</a>, and
<a href="http://www.compaq.com/">Compaq</a>, and (and
<a href="http://www.apple.com/">Apple</a> and
<a href="http://www.umax.com/">Umax</a>) every other vendor that
refuses to recognize our market:
</blockquote>
<p align="center">We demand recognition and support</p>
<blockquote>
... and we must back that up with action by shopping with
vendors that meet this requirement.
<br><br>
If we fail to do so, and we scramble about to reverse engineer
every new wrinkle then we are failing as consumers (no matter
how we shine as engineers). "They" won't (and shouldn't?) care
about the "silent minority."
<br><br>
The risk and cost of this is that we may not always benefit
from the same economy of scale that's enjoyed by the mass
market. We may have to pay a bit more (though not quite as
bit of a premium as we used to see between PC's and Macs
nor nearly the discrepancy that still exists between micros
and workstations).
</blockquote>
<!--================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/ssc.copying.html"
>Copyright ©</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 29 June 1998</H5>
<P> <hr>
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