Come on Dell, Show us the Numbers

It’s been nearly 2 weeks since Dell bowed to the perception of demand for a major computer retailer to provide Linux on computers.

Craploads of people expressed their support for the idea, and Dell figured it might be a good idea to follow through since there was so much demand for the machines.  They expressed their support for a few other open-source, fuck Microsoft oriented ideas, essentially hijacking the site and turning into a very boring place to submit and vote on ideas that could never become popular when competing with an ideology that has a following with nothing to do between school and sleep.

So anyway, Dell setup a new section of their website where you could buy a couple of flavours of Linux on known-to-be-compatible hardware and all that.

So where’s the results?  You’d think, given the huge number of people demanding it, there’d be a huge number of sales bearing at least some relation to the demand.

After nearly two weeks there’s been no follow up on the Direct2Dell blog and that strikes me as funny.  These 11 days have been an ideal time to keep the buzz and the hype burning, to congratulate the open source community for their insight and all that self-validating stuff the younger open source people live for.

But there’s been nothing.  No mention, no congratulations, no acknowledgement, not even a hint about whether it’s a success. 

This isn’t just an important moment for Dell, this is an important moment for the open source community.

So what’s the story Dell?  How many of these machines are you actually selling?

My favourite theory is a bunch of kids hijacked IdeaStorm, created a false demand for products they didn’t want to or couldn’t buy, and in doing so discredited the open source community and the IdeaStorm website.  No news means the sales were crap and there’s nothing positive to say about it.  I wonder how this’ll affect the rest of the tards’ ideas on IdeaStorm – notably to get rid of Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and to preload a sizable volume of open source junk onto computers instead?