After weeks of speculation, Dell, the second largest PC manufacturer in the world, have finally announced that they are going to ship desktops and notebooks pre-installed with Linux. This is great news, regardless of what you think of Dell.

It’s great news because Linux geeks will be able to get their OS of choice pre-installed, even though the geeky amongst us would still prefer to build our own PCs and install Linux ourselves. It’s great news because maybe we can get notebooks which contain components known to work with Linux, without having to resort to using ndiswrapper, binary userspace daemons and all manner of other crap to get wireless support.

It’s great news because, although it took a long time, maybe other PC manufacturers will want to make sure that Dell don’t corner the pre-installed Linux market, which is likely to see a tidal wave of purchases (we’ve been waiting for this for yeeeeeeaaars) and want a piece of the action themselves, which leads to competition, which leads to a better deal for customers and an array of choices.

It’s great news because people will be able to buy Linux PCs off the shelf if they want to. It’s great news because a vendor has finally stood up to Microsoft regarding their discounts on Windows licenses for vendors who refuse to ship anything other than Windows. Yeah maybe Dell did this a while ago, but still…

I don’t care whether you like Dell or not, but at least we have a choice now. Maybe your choice won’t be Dell, or even Linux, but at least we have the choice and hopefully soon we will see similar announcements from other manufacturers.

Whatever you views, having the second largest PC manufacturer in the world agree that Linux has enough demand to provide it on the desktop is a large step towards becoming a real option in normal people’s front rooms and workplaces at a time when most businesses are deciding whether to stick with Windows 2000/XP for as long as possible, move to Vista or try Linux.

I’m still on O2, despite my rant about them a few years ago which is still attracting comments. I compared the respective offers from the O2 store sales guy and the one in Phones4U and frankly, the O2 guy won on technique, or lack thereof, alone.

The deals cost the same (although the Phones4U staff tried to ‘up-sell’ us), the phones were the same, but the O2 guy let us ask him questions and let us make our choice or leave it. The Phones4U staff were forceful, kept us there for half an hour or more, making ever more confusing offers and trying to convince us to sign the deal without leaving. I had to stop the senior sales girl (who had joined the original sales guy) twice and ask her to slow down and stop throwing numbers at us. We were offered all sorts of things, cash back, £40 in cash before we left the store, thousands of free minutes and hundreds of texts, all for more than we wanted to pay, provided we signed the deal. I explained politely that I refused to sign anything without first comparing with the competition and when I explained this they stood up and turned their backs on us so we left. I have since been informed that you never actually get any cash back, you get more free call credit. Something wrong with the wording there I think.

The thing was, the deal was better than O2 were offering, but O2 let us choose our deal, Phones4U took what we wanted and then tried to sell us a more expensive deal which was too complicated to follow and then blanked us when we asked if we could continue on our research mission and then return when we had made a decision. So, as annoyed as I was that O2 didn’t know my tariff details and took more than half an hour to come to that conclusion, their sales staff are polite, friendly and helpful while the Phones4U staff were aggressive and rude in their sales technique. I did a short course in sales techniques so I knew why they were being that way – to overwhelm you with impressive sounding figures and get you to sign before you get chance to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages. It’s all about the money. Get the sale. Fuck what the customer wants.

Fuck you, to coin a phrase. You don’t get my money if my university educated brain can’t follow your deal or you try to overwhelm me with figures. Clarity and giving me what I want is the key to getting my wallet open.

That’s because there has been no news. Or at least I haven’t told anybody any of the news because I’ve been busy.

So, here’s the news:

I passed my CCNA first semester with flying colours. Always a relief 🙂

I got a new phone, a Sony Ericsson k800i and got a free 1GB iPod Shuffle.

My good friend and work colleague Graham Jones died of cancer. Graham was the nicest, kindest most sincere bloke you could wish to meet. A lot of people say that about a lot of people, but it’s true of Graham. There were more people outside trying to get into his funeral than there were inside the packed out hall. RIP brother.

I have given up cigarettes and alcohol. Really. I stopped smoking in November and I’ve been out drinking once since October and it reminded me why I hadn’t been out since October. I don’t enjoy it any more and I feel ill for 3 days afterwards. Really ill. It just wasn’t worth it any more. Most of my friends will think I’m joking when they read this, I’m not. That’s not to say I won’t fall off the wagon at some point of my own choosing, but it means that it will be fruitless inviting me on nights out any more, at least until somebody invents an instant cure for hangovers that works. Besides, everybody gave up inviting me out on nights out ages ago because I always make excuses about not wanting to go.

On final note, I have been made a company director at work. Yes, Adam Sweet, Technical Director. That’s me. You may bow 🙂

Hope you’re all well. There is probably far more which I have missed out, but that’s it for now.