Abbie Schubert paid more than $1,100 for a Dell laptop hoping to enroll in online classes at MATC.
[...]
Schubert says she ordered her laptop online at Dell.com expecting to buy your classic bread-and-butter computer.
She didn’t realize until the next morning her laptop defaulted to the Ubuntu operating system.
“It’s been a mess,” she said. “I regret ordering the computer.”
Schubert says she never heard of Ubuntu before learning that’s when she accidentally bought. She called Dell the very next day and says the representative told her there was still time to change back to Windows.
But she says Dell discouraged her.
[...]
Her Verizon High-Speed Internet CD won’t load, so she can’t access the internet. She also can’t install Microsoft Word, which she says is a requirement for MATC’s online classes.As a result, with no internet and no Microsoft Word, Schubert dropped out of MATC’s fall and spring semesters.
Survival of the fittest, just Darwin at work here.
Last time I look, it was a major pain the arse to order a Linux laptop from Dell. They had them in separate section of the site, and only had 2 or 3 models to choose from. How hard did she have to look to find this section? I knows it there and have a hard time finding it.
Dell’s site says everywhere that they recommend Vista, and it seems to be only or default choice for most machines, so did she play around with things to get the cheapest price or what?
Sounds like a Ballmer troll to me.
Although I feel badly for her, that is absolutely not an acceptable excuse to drop out of college. There are libraries with computers. Cafes with computers. Dell discouraged you? So what – call them again and change it.
I’m pretty sure in the few weeks you might have to wait for another computer you could find a way around not having one. I don’t see people dropping out of college because their laptop breaks and they need to send it away for a few weeks to get it fixed.
#18, yeah, crappy interface aside, OpenOffice loads office documents just fine as long as you aren’t taking an MS Access class.
I sense a lot of Linux-love here: “if you don’t know how to do [whatever] you’re obviously too stupid to use a computer.”
And you wonder why nobody in the real world actually uses that crap to get real work done.
# 24 Olo Baggins of Bywater said, “I sense a lot of Linux-love here: “if you don’t know how to do [whatever] you’re obviously too stupid to use a computer.” ”
You’re right. For the non gear head, Linux isn’t a real option.
The little blurb about it not installing word when Open Office comes by default makes this think smell like BS. She was probably partying and doing drugs and had to make up an excuse so mom and dad would take her back.
How the hell could the computer cause her to drop out?! All you NEED for school a pencil, paper, and effort.
She would never have made the grade anyway.
Wow, a computer shows up unlike anything you are expecting, and you bash the owner for not knowing how to use your beloved operating system?
Windows is superior.
Obviously she had not purchased a computer before (like many people) and probably doesn’t know what an OS much less Linux verse Windows. This is the typical user, we have to accept that. She messed up, Dell had a way to fix it so she got what she want but a tech support guy discouraged her. That is the real problem, the tech support guy should have helped her get what she wanted. Like it or not, most people want Windows because they know it or use it at work.
Regarding OpenOffice, I use it and like it. My problem with it is that it is much slower loading than Office and takes a lot more memory. Fix those and it will be much more compelling.
#28, I think canceling two semesters worth of classes because of this is reason enough.
I’m sorry, your too stupid to own a computer.
1) You don’t need a CD to set up verison DSL. At the most you have to go to it’s web interface and configure it.
2) There are other things that work like office like open office. At the very worst you can buy crossover office which works great on ubuntu.
Linux is not for the stupid or those unwilling to learn.
Linux is like a tool chest. Windows is like having a hammer, a screw driver and a pair of pliers. Some people just don’t know what to do with a chest full of tools.
I think she just didn’t want to do these courses and if she absolutely had to have Windows, she could have bought an old copy of XP or a new copy of Vista.
FTA:
“Verizon says it will dispatch a technician to try to assist her accessing the internet without using the Windows-only installation disk. Verizon says its high-speed internet does indeed support Ubuntu, but some advanced features and installation disks clearly don’t work with Linux.
MATC also says it promises to accept any of Schubert’s papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.
Schubert’s computer came with Open Office, a word processing software package that is compatible with Microsoft Word. She says she wasn’t aware it was compatible. MATC promised to show her how to save documents in compatible formats so she could enroll in online courses again.”
$1,100 for ‘classic bread-and-butter computer’???
What’s even worse than the fact that she can’t use Ubuntu is the fact that the news station thought this was news worthy. I guess tech ignorance is bliss when it comes to news reporting.
If I had the time I would offer to help her, I have the same internet provider and live less than a half mile from her home.
Just a cotton pickin’ minute here! She ordered the computer “online from Dell.com”. She already had internet access!
Stupid broad!
Yeah, it must be a bullshit story. In my experience on the Dell website, you really have to search to find the purchase options to specify that you want Ubuntu Linux as your OS. All the defaults are set to Vista.
And even if you end up with an Ubuntu system, setup is as easy (if not even easier) than Windows Vista. I’ve had no real trouble introducing folks to Ubuntu, even when they insist they only know how to use WinXP. Ubuntu is easier for XP users to handle than Vista seems to be.
This is a no brainer, and if poor Abbie can’t figure out the basic operation of Ubuntu (point mouse, click choices) or OpenOffice, she herself may have no brain.
I dunno, but I gave a Linux laptop to a friend who never owned a computer. She needs it for the web, calendar, e-mail, and to type up documents. If my friend, who is the most computer illiterate person I know, can operate the Linux box I gave her six months ago with no problem whatsoever, this woman’s problem was not that she did not have windows on the machine. I believe many ‘geeks’ call it PEBKAC, or an ID-10-T error.
funny thing is…$1100 is the cost for their top-of-the-line laptop right now (w basic warranty), and not their bare-minimum one. even if you add in the 3-year warranty cost AND assume tax for Texas, she still wasn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel. so why pick Ubuntu?
someone probably sent her a link to the page, and she zombied her way through it. once you’re in the linux selection section of the dell ordering, it doesn’t give you Vista as an option.
still doesn’t sound strictly legit. I’m with the “partied too hard” line of thinking.