Comments on: some ponderings on emperor linux (and more pre-packaged linux in general)

By: KingPin

KingPin — Sat, 12 May 2007 13:22:59 +0000

I use a Dell E1705, purchased about a year ago, for routine work. I needed a linux distro on there so I can compile a binary for software I was working on so i decided to run ubuntu on there as I use it on my home PC as a dual boot and at work on our servers. I had a CD of ubuntu edgy handy and I used it to install. The install was flawless and I was online with wireless DHCP as soon as install was done and using everything else normally like I did before with windows. I upgraded to fiesty fawn now and the upgrade went flawlessly, all components still work and everything runs great :) I personally wouldn’t bother buying a custom kernel distro just for the sake of buying it but only if it was a viable choice that provided functionality a regular distro didnt. if I have a problem with my current laptop install I know there are thousands of people out there using the same vanilla ubuntu who might be able to help in some way, with a customized kernel the track record of companies that sell it is hit / miss. sometimes they know just what to do other times they dont…. just my opinion :)

By: OSNews.com

OSNews.com — Thu, 03 May 2007 21:38:38 +0000

[...] has wrote an interesting entry in his blog, explaining why it is in Linux’s best interest that distribution communities seek out small Linux OEM companies and help them in providing the best Linux experience possible. “Obviously it is in RH, Canonical, [...]

By: Luis

Luis — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 02:22:51 +0000

To follow up to Jeff’s comment, for the sake of those who find this blog via google: Since my initial mixed experience, Emperor have been pros with my irregular yet demanding support requests, and very helpful. Assuming they’ve fixed some of the problems I’ve had, I’d recommend them.

By: Jeff Black

Jeff Black — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 02:13:37 +0000

I have a couple of friends that purchase their laptops from Emperor Linux and these friends know what they are doing, one being a linux programmer the other a consultant and security expert. They both recommended that I buy my next laptop from Emperor Linux. The past three weeks I’ve called Emperor Linux and they have been excellent at answering my questions even when I wasn’t a paying customer. I’ve ordered four Rhinos (Dell) this past week and am excitedly awaiting there arrival. Their courtesy, intelligence and thoughtful answers give me confidence that in the future when I need technical assistance they will provide it well.

I will be using fedora core 6.0 as I am switching from SuSE 10.2 since Novell has become cozy with Windoze.

Call Emperor Linux and ask them some questions. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with their support. In the past I’ve purchased four Dells. The machines are great but their support is off in India and I’ve never found the help for which I asked. This won’t be the case with EL.

By: Brent

Brent — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:06:34 +0000

I’ve worked personally with the Emperor Linux staff and have nothing but great things to say about them. I’ve seen a laptop perform with a recent distro and THERE customized version, and there is no doubt that there version looked noticably sharper and ran very well. Frankly, they can do a better job with their expertise and specialization than a generic distro.

For both the novice and the expert linux user, I saw excellent value in using Emperor especially for hardware costing a couple thousand. I want everything to look and work right and frankly, even with two weeks of my time, I’d still have a couple nagging issues to deal with on a more sluggish kernel.

By: Luis

Luis — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:40:05 +0000

JL: works here; note that you have to be pressing on the screen, not just floating above it, to have it work.

By: jldugger

jldugger — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 19:32:21 +0000

Has anyone gotten GNOME to right click with a pen? Either there’s some simple configuration I’m missing here, or it just doesn’t do it yet. I’ve found a bug reported to GIMP complaining that the pen brings up right click menu, so it seems feasible at least =/

By: Luis

Luis — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:20:33 +0000

Jeff: that’s great to hear; had not been aware of that.

By: Jeff Schroeder

Jeff Schroeder — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:05:43 +0000

Luis, you are incorrect in someways. Take a look at how well System76 and Ubuntu get along. The core ubuntu team helped System76 fix some x breakage fairly recently

http://www.system76.com/
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?s=678b07f6a3c75b3d4d1b1609024090fa&f=158

By: Michael M.

Michael M. — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:22:55 +0000

I had a good experience buying a machine with Ubuntu pre-installed from Groovix ( http://groovix.com/ ), and if was in the market for a laptop, I’d probably go back to them to get it, just to avoid having to configure everything myself. Well, except that I ended up replacing Ubuntu with Debian on the machine I have, so I don’t really know what buying another machine with Ubuntu pre-installed would save me if I’m going to end up replacing it again. I guess I could at least be assured that I’m getting a laptop with components that are Linux compatible. If you’re Red Hat or Canonical, and you’re trying to get companies to look at your software and services, do you really want to be pushing hardware also? Isn’t one of the selling points of Linux that it runs well on commodity hardware? The consumer/retail market is too small and too fragmented, and probably will remain so. Unless the “one distro to rule them all” comes along, I don’t see the situation changing. But at least you *can* buy a computer with Linux pre-installed, and from a lot of different sources, even if they are mostly smallish companies. That wasn’t the case a few years ago.