[TriLUG] "The Linux Experience" at Dell, a tale of woe and wow. VERY LONG

[William Sutton]

I was expecting an epic of homeric proportions; this read more like a 
synopsis.

In any case, what I've observed of Dell over the years has left me less 
than thrilled about them, and Ubuntu isn't even Dell's first attempt at 
selling its hardware with Linux pre-loaded.

Several years ago (say, '01) when I was working at Nando, the bulk of our 
servers were Dell server series systems running Red Hat 7.0 pre-installed.  
One morning I came in to learn that the admins were having issues with one 
of the database servers; apparently the RAID card had gone wonky and had 
corrupted all three disks attached to it.

They called Dell for support and were told, "Oh, hmm, that's nice.  
Hardware fails, buy a new box." (it was on-board RAID IIRC).  So they 
ordered a new box, configured it (still pre-loaded with Red Hat) and put 
it in the rack.  Some months later, it died just like its predecessor.  
They called Dell back, "Um, something's broken."  Dell's response was to 
ask what OS they were running.  "We don't support Linux.  You should use 
the Windows disk that came with the server."  "Guys...*YOU* installed that 
for us."  "We did?  Oh.  Well, you have to buy another server."

When the *THIRD* server died...they finally listened to our admins and 
checked if there was a hardware design issue (there was) but decided they 
weren't going to fix it.

About the same time all of that was transpiring with knowledgable IT 
professionals, my brother (a ChemE student) had the disk in his new Dell 
PC go bad.  When he finally got through to them and got them to agree to 
fix it, they sent a tech to his apartment who was going to leave the disk 
and run for it.  My brother made the tech install the disk, but once the 
physical installation was done, the tech fled, leaving my brother (not a 
technophobe, but also not an IT guy) to reinstall Windows and all the 
drivers that Dell likes to keep on their site.

Bottom line is that Linux or not, I refuse to buy a Dell.

-- 
William Sutton


On Wed, 29 Aug 2007, Chris Knowles wrote:

> This is my tale of purchasing a computer from Dell, with Ubuntu 7.04
> preloaded on it.  It's got a bit of everything.  It's got farewells,
> happy meetings, struggles against evil and clueslessness, mild defeats,
> mild triumphs, and concern for the future.
> 
> It is *very* long.  Skip to the bit #DELLSUPPORT# for the juicy bits.  
> 
> It has become time to upgrade my trusty black behemoth.  Looking at my
> various options it has become clear that building my own system is not
> an option.  (Having a 2 year old makes free time go away.)
> 
> So, I looked at how I could best get a desktop system that would work
> well with Linux.  (Specifically Ubuntu... I'm an unabashed fan of that
> distro)
> 
> Due to my familiarity with Dell from work and their recent decision to
> preload Ubuntu on consumer PCs, I decided to go with them.
> 
> I purchased an Inspiron 530 with big honking moniter (which I'm still
> drooling over) various normal bits, CD-RW/DVD-ROM and an NVIDIA 8600GT.
> (These get mentioned specifically as they figure in the rest of the
> story)
> 
> The NVIDIA card is the upgraded option... 256 MB of sweet BZflag
> (http://www.bzflag.com/) glory.
> 
> I receive the very pretty, very white, very small PC several weeks
> later.  
> 
> Boots up... asks the normal post-install Ubuntu questions, and lets me
> log in.  Network, sound etc all working perfectly.
> 
> Sadly I didn't see the NVIDIA logo pop up.  
> 
> Also, notice that the entire 250GB drive is set as one partition.  I
> usually like /home elsewhere in case I screw something up and need to do
> a fresh install...
> 
> So I download the LiveCD version of GParted to move the partitions
> around, and burn the ISO to CD.  
> 
> Or rather, try to burn the ISO to CD.  The CD spins, hums, and the
> software reports success, but nothing is on the CD.  I try nautilus,
> K3B, and cdrecord.  All report success, but no joy.  
> 
> Hmm... 
> 
> Back to NVIDIA, as bzflag would make me happy again.  The "Ubuntu" way
> of using the restricted drivers manager doesn't work.  (It states that
> there are no restricted drivers needed.)
> 
> After much googling... I find that the current version of the restricted
> drivers manager doesn't support the NVIDIA 8600GT.  
> 
> Poking around, I find the Envy installer...
> http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html and use that.  It gets me
> into NVIDIA driver land, and I'm playing BZFlag.  
> 
> But it's not the "Ubuntu way"  Thinking that Dell may have added some
> secret sauce, and wanting to figure out this CD problem too, I call
> Dell.
> 
> #DELLSUPPORT#
> 
> I call the 800 number off the Dell website for technical support.  I'm
> asked by a nice computer for the "Express Service Code" (ESC or serial
> number) so they can route my call.  "Hmm, I couldn't find that code"
> says the nice computer.  And asks for the type of computer, and whether
> I'm running Vista.  Then the phone rings, and I'm talking to a Tech
> Support Person.  (hereon referred to as TSP)
> 
> The TSP asks for me my ESC, which I give again, and they get my system
> details... I tell them that I'm running preloaded Ubuntu and of my
> problems.  They ask me to click on the start button. 
> 
> I reiterate that I have Ubuntu.
> 
> They ask me to go to Dell Connect.  (Think GoToMyPC but only for Dells)
> I remind them that the EXE file needed works with Windows, not Ubuntu.
> 
> (repeat this theme for ~30 minutes.)
> 
> The TSP suddenly states "Oh, you have Ubuntu.  We don't support that
> here, I have to transfer you to the correct number."  Before I can ask
> for that number, I get hold music followed by a disconnect.
> 
> Repeat this 2 times. 
> 
> I get cranky.
> 
> I do a lot of Googling.  Finally find a post on Ubuntu Forums from a guy
> that had much the same problem as me.  He however, got the number for
> the Ubuntu Hardware support from Dell.
> http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-504486.html
> 
> 1-866-622-1947
> 
> I call this number, I'm immediately talking to another TSP, this one
> greets me by saying "Welcome to the Linux Experience by Dell..."
> 
> And he knew Ubuntu reasonably well for a level 1 TSP.
> 
> The upshot is... the CD-RW drives they ship in the systems are VERY
> picky as to media.  the FUJIFILM media I was using won't work, even
> though I had used ~80 of them in another generic drive, but Sony media
> seems to work... they're sending out a replacement drive that should be
> less picky.
> 
> The NVIDIA story is less happy.  The 8600GT is truly not supported under
> the nice Ubuntu way of doing things.  The punchline is that if I had
> stayed with the 8300 card that was default I would have had no problems,
> according to the website.
> 
> #DELLUPSHOT#
> 
> I'm *very* happy with the support from their Linux support people.
> 
> I'm *VERYVERYVERY* unhappy with the difficulty of getting in touch with
> the Linux support people.
> 
> My main concern is that it is one thing to make me edit my xorg.conf
> file, it's another thing entirely to make Joe User do the same thing.
> Also, getting the runaround in the support call would cause most end
> users I know box the thing up and send it back.  (If I had had one more
> disconnect that's what I was going to do.)
> 
> From my discussion with the Linux TSP about how hard it is to get to
> them, it appears that Dell hadn't really got the support system setup
> before starting to sell the systems.  
> 
> Anyway, I'm off to poke my computer and play BZflag.  Anyone up for a
> match?
> 
> CJK
>