Dell leads the Linux workstation market, Sep 14, 2007

According to the Q2 2007 Jon Peddie Workstation Report, AMD is still struggling with a minority market share, Dell is still on top, and Hewlett-Packard is still the number two workstation manufacturer. Buried in the details, though, is something more interesting: Dell is also the number one Linux workstation manufacturer.

OS X and Linux are essentially two extreme opposites. The Apple Way is to make all of your decisions for you so that you're not burdened by choice. Some people enjoy that -- they find simplicity in it that allows them to concentrate on other things. To me, it's computing hell.

BSD and Linux programmers have had a lot of success in creating drivers for new computer hardware in a timely manner, but much of their effort has been without the support of major hardware manufacturers.

Gaël Duval, the founder of the popular MandrakeLinux (later MandrivaLinux) project, was fired from Mandriva last spring in an effort to cut costs. Almost immediately afterward, Duval began work on a new GNU/Linux distribution, Ulteo. As of this writing, Ulteo has not yet released its first beta edition, but it should be available soon. While we're all waiting, I figured I'd ask Mr. Duval some questions about Ulteo, Mandriva, and starting GNU/Linux projects in general.

MandrivaLinux (formerly MandrakeLinux) will shortly introduce a new round of releases for its Corporate Server, Corporate Desktop, and PowerPack Edition GNU/Linux distributions. While preparing to review these operating systems I sent some interview questions to Mandriva's CEO, Francois Bancilhon. Responses are below.

It's gotten so that you need a serious 3D video card (with proprietary drivers) and a fairly fast computer just to keep up with desktop environments. Whatever happened to being productive and having fun?

...lately I've seen an abrupt decline in GNU/Linux evangelism on online forums. Below are some possible reasons for this change in community thinking and behavior.

Laptop computers are far more likely to contain unsupported unique or proprietary hardware than desktop machines, so laptop computers in general can be difficult to get your favorite free software operating system onto.