Dell and Standards at Robert Pogson

I have tried to do business with Dell and I have worked with a lot of good equipment from Dell, but they make everything so hard. Try:

finding anything with Linux on their site
finding anything on their site if you are in the wrong class of customers
finding identical kit running GNU/Linux or that other OS as options
now, installing a hard drive on their servers just got harder

What ticked me off to write this entry was something else. An acquaintance brought me a notebook that had a forgotten password. I was unable to reset the password. It can only be done after phoning Dell and jumping through their hoops. That is a security feature for businesses/professionals etc. but it is definitely a drag for ordinary folks using a PC and having a member of the family put on a password for fun… Products that turn into bricks are not fun for consumers, Dell.

The other thing is that Dell PowerEdge servers are very useful but Dell is now making them less useful by requiring only drives certified by Dell be used. Whatever happened to standards? Are we going back to the bad old days where every OEM made its own parts? Proprietary power cords? There is some of that going on with motherboards for servers because of tight spaces but drives? Give us a break, Dell. Stick with standards for stuff that is likely to fail and need replacement, please, or we will buy from those who do support standards. I have seen motherboards speced to use certified memory modules but none refused to work when other parts were inserted. They may have run at reduced speed but they ran. Dell is refusing to let the drives run, period. That is too much. I can buy equipment that is more flexible elsewhere.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.