STILL can't buy a Linux PC easily Post: 302463394

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The Lounge What is on Your Mind? STILL can't buy a Linux PC easily Post 302463394 by KenJackson on Sunday 17th of October 2010 09:01:46 AM

10-17-2010

Registered User

STILL can't buy a Linux PC easily

A few years ago, Dell announced they were selling PCs with Linux (Ubuntu) preinstalled or with no OS installed. It was about time! So a couple years ago I bought the Inspiron 1525n laptop that I'm typing this on with Ubuntu preinstalled. Yea! (Though I immediately wiped Ubuntu and installed Fedora--sorry.)

So where do we stand today? Is the market free? Do we have a selection of OSes to choose from just as we do for cars, furniture, books, banks, and grocery stores?

No.

The Dell website offers only Windows under Home and Home Office. On the Enterprise pages they offer--count 'em--fourteen varieties of Windows! Oh, yeah, they do also list these:

Quote:

Ubuntu� Linux� (select countries)
nSeries FreeDOSTM

What's a select country? Is my country (USA) among the lucky select countries? Apparently not. I tried to customize a PC but only Windows choices were in the OS selection category, not Linux or FreeDOS either for that matter.

So why do I still not have the freedom to buy a Linux PC readily off the shelf?

The last 5 or so new PCs I've bought were pieces that I put together (except for this laptop). I sort prefer that, but I would like the option to just buy something ready-to-go. And I certainly would like to be able to tell friends how they can experience Linux without installing it. (Yeah, a couple have booted live CDs--that's at least something.)

How would you like it if GM was the only car company you could buy a car from? Fourteen GM cars to choose from should cover the market. You don't need any more choices.

Does anyone else want a free OS market?

KenJackson

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

i8kctl

i8kctl(1)							     Utilities								 i8kctl(1)

NAME

       I8kctl, i8kfan - Utility to access SMM BIOS on Dell Inspiron laptops

SYNTAX

       i8kctl [<command> [<args>]]
       i8kfan [<left> [<right>]]

DESCRIPTION

       The i8kctl utility provides a command-line interface to the i8k kernel driver for Dell Inspiron laptops. When invoked without arguments the
       program reports the same information which can be read from the /proc/i8k file:

	      1.  i8k format version
	      2.  bios version
	      3.  machine id
	      4.  cpu temperature
	      5.  left fan status
	      6.  right fan status
	      7.  left fan speed
	      8.  right fan speed
	      9.  ac power status
	      10. fn buttons status

       The optional command argument can be used to select only one of the above items. Command can be: version, bios, id, temp,  fan,	speed,	ac
       and fn. Examples:

	      $ i8kctl
	      1.0 A17 B5W123K 52 2 1 8040 6420 1 2

	      $ i8kctl temp
	      52

	      $ i8kctl fan
	      2 1

       The fan command can accept two optional parameters which specify the new fan state for left and right fans. The state parameter can be:

	      0  turn the fan off
	      1  set low speed
	      2  set high speed
	      -  don't change the state of this fan

       For example the command:

	      $ i8kctl fan - 2

       sets  the  right  fan  to high speed and leaves the left unchanged.  It should be noted that if the i8kmon(1) daemon is used to control the
       fans, setting the speed with i8kfan is pointless since the daemon will override the speed with its own value.

       Invoking i8kctl as i8kfan is the same as invoking the program with the fan option:

	      $ i8kctl fan 1 2
	      1 2

	      $ i8kfan 1 2
	      1 2

FILES

       /proc/i8k

AUTHORS

       Massimo Dal Zotto <dz@debian.org>

COPYRIGHT

       i8kctl and all the i8kutils programs , scripts and other files are distributed under the GNU  General  Public  License  (GPL).	On  Debian
       GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL'.

SEE ALSO

       i8kmon(1), i8kbuttons(1)

Massimo Dal Zotto						   18 March 2002							 i8kctl(1)