Linux on Dells: A Win for Co-Design?

Big news today is that Dell will begin shipping Linux on desktops and laptops. Bloggers are noting that the idea got lots of play last month when Dell launched its IdeaStorm site, but not much has been written about what this means for co-design. The concept, popularized by Patty Seybold, is that a company can set up a customer site to collaborate on product direction and design. That's the driving principal behind IdeaStorm. And what's really interesting is that the first newsworthy result from this project is "Linux on Dells," something that many people have been clamoring for, long before IdeaStorm. But it appears that co-design has legitimized this inevitable move for Dell ... and that it has legitimized it with numbers. As Dell noted today, an IdeaStorm survey found that more than 70% of the respondents said they wanted Linux on Dells. Never mind that polls like this are biased through self-selection. The 70% was, perhaps, just what Dell needed to rationalize this move, and -- of course -- disarm its long-time partners at Microsoft. What can they say? Recommendation to MSFT: let your customers do the talking.

Comments

[Patty Seybold]

Giovanni,
Thanks for the mention! Although I have promulgated customer co-design, I can't claim to have had anything to do with Dell's IdeaStorm effort (other than to be delighted about it!).

One of the things that often happens in early days of customer co-design is that customers clamor for something the company has been tempted to do but hasn't gotten around to yet, for lots of NIH reasons. The customers then help shape the company's initiative so that it is much more likely to be successful. For example, your customers know a lot more about what's needed to ensure rapid adoption than your product managers do! It looks to me as if that's what's happened with Linux on Dells.

[linux photoshop]

Dell has thoughts on Linux on their and maybe with the request of their customers they supplied them with laptops that comes with preinstalled Linux operataing system