You see, Annie was ready to enroll in online classes at Madison Area Technical College (emphasis mine), so she bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu pre-loaded. MATC lists as its requirements Microsoft Word and internet access, so when her Verizon DSL install CD wouldn't work and the word "Microsoft" was nowhere to be found, she called Dell. There, a gracious callcenter support drone told her that Ubuntu was just fine for everything she needed to do (true, I would say) and that it's just perfect for college students. Annie agreed.

Something tells me there are a few critical plot points missing from WKOW's story, because we go from that point to dropping out of MATC due to continued failings in getting the Ubuntu machine wired up to the net and ongoing confusion over this whole "Open Office" thing.

And then, instead of calling the school and Verizon to get things settled, Annie went to Dan Cassuto, overseer of WKOW's crack Troubleshooter segment. He called Verizon and MATC and everything is just fine now. Phew.

As ridiculous as it may be, let this serve as a parable. Just because you and I know that setting up a DSL connection without the install CD is pretty easy, and that Open Office can save Word-compatible documents just fine, poor Annie—a perfect representation of a mainstream user if I ever saw one—got tripped up. Linux will never truly go seamlessly mainstream with problems like this persisting.

I'm just glad everything worked out without the world ending and the internet explosing. Thanks, WKOW! [WKOW via Slashdot, The Whole Internet]

Linux command line ninjas can check the size of their Inspiron Mini's partition by following a few simple steps. Open a terminal and enter the sudo fdisk -l command, and enter your password. You'll be greeted with the image above, as well an accurate size of your partition.

Dell, for its part, is shipping updated machines that fix this issue. Existing owners looking for a fix have a few options, says Liliputing:

If you have a USB DVD drive, you can use the system restore disc to reinstall Dell’s custom version of Ubuntu. It will reformat the entire drive.

Or you can attempt to resize your partitions. The easiest way to do this is probably to download and install Parted Magic to a USB flash drive and then boot from that drive. Run the gParted partition manager and you should see the 4GB partition that Ubuntu is installed on and 8 or 12GB of unused space. Just grab the edge of the 4GB partition and drag it resize the partition, save your changes and reboot.

Of course, these DIY fixes run the chance of erasing your OS, so maybe this is one of those customer support times. Unless you live and breathe Ubuntu. Then, by all means, hack away. [Ubuntu Mini via Liliputing]

I think Microsoft used to actually care about trying to help the consumer. I may not think that they did wonderful technology, but I think they really did try to serve their customers. But look at their [digital rights management] and their "Genuine Windows Advantage" — they're not trying to serve their customers any more in their products; they are adding features that are actively bad for users, because they probably feel like they aren't even competing any more.

While he thinks it's slicker than most Linux distros, downloading codecs, no built-in DVD software, hardware issues (with an iPod and Kodak camera) earn it usability knocks, with an underlying subtext nudging people toward OS X at the end. Since Mossberg is a champion of ease of use above all else, the review's not exactly surprising.

It won't have much (if any) impact in Linux or geek circles, but given his influence it could be a tipping point for people looking to leap from Windows who are tempted by Ubuntu but unsure if they have enough geek juice to run it. What are you thoughts on the review? Fair or an overly harsh judgment? [All Things D]

"

This weekend Starting June 10, Dell's first Wal-Mart offering, the Dimension E521, will roll out into more than 3,000 locations. Naturally, both more computers and more retail partners will follow, since Dell sees third-party retail as one its major new avenues to growth. Of course, the name of the game is audience expansion, so it's no coincidence that we're seeing the fruits of "Dell 2.0" the same week we're seeing its close to its Wally World debut as it grasps for consumers on both sides of the traditional Dell spectrum of sales. – Louis Ramirez & Matt Buchanan

Product Page [via Direct2Dell]
Wal-Mart to begin selling Dell PCs [CNET via Between the Lines]

First off, Dell's going to be shipping the default install of Ubuntu. However, when it comes to drivers, they're going to be supporting a subset of other OS installations, and using some closed source drivers when it's necessary—as in, when there's no equivalent open source version. For you, this means better compatibility.

However, the fact that Dell is entering this Linux game means they're going to push people hard to make drivers compatible and/or open source. Fantastic for Linux users.

As for peripherals, Dell is going to set up a wiki page so you can see which ones are supported and what problems they have. This includes printers, which they recommend you buy from Dell (shocker).

For other hardware, Dell is working on adding support in conjunction with other manufacturers, which means it's actually great news for Linux fans since a big manufacturer like Dell will lean hard on peripheral makers to provide Linux compatibility.

The bad news is they're not going to support any "proprietary audio or video codecs" like MPEG 1/2/3/4, WMA, WMV, DVD, Quicktime and others. If you want those, you're going to have to install them yourself. – Jason Chen

Ubuntu 7.04 Offering—Technical Details [Direct2Dell]

Today, Dell said it will support Microsoft and Novell. Not only will it sell enterprise servers with the option of Suse Linux, but it will try to migrate self-administering Linux users over to Suse. Apparently, this isn't considered two-timing on Ubuntu, because Dell's relationship with Suse Linux will be strictly business.

I, for one, am not totally sure about Dell's two-timing. Just take a look at its Linux website, and try to explain where the Ubuntu relationship fits into all of this. Girlfriend, it don't count unless you got a ring on your finger. – Wilson Rothman

Dell signs on with Microsoft, Novell [BusinessWeek]