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News Dell starts charging for Firefox installation

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 6 Mar 2014.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. RichCreedy

    RichCreedy Hey What Who

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    could they not argue, they aren't charging for the software, but for the technician to install it?

    edit: oops missed the last bit of story
     
  3. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Dell needs to look at how much it pays it's workers or other overheads if it costs them £16.25 for what takes 1min to do.
     
  4. damien c

    damien c Mad FPS Gamer

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    Wow just wow charging for someone to install a free piece of software whilst installing the rest of the bloatware they will install.
     
  5. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    I think Mozilla may have to fight for this one.

    1) The Mozilla Public Licence says you can distribute the software in executable form.

    2) The EULA says you can't remove the trademarks.

    3) The Trademark agreement says you can't charge for installs.

    Doesn't seem entirely consistent and possibly not so clear cut as Mozilla would like. But it might be enough for them to force Dell to stop offering it as an option.
     
  6. Dave Lister

    Dave Lister Minimodder

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    I totally agree with Corky, I would think a big company like that would just mirror a master hdd onto each customers hdd which takes no extra time to do. If the techs do actually sit there loading up discs and downloading firefox then it still wouldn't cost them that much in time and effort to install firefox !

    If this is the new Dell, I will continue telling people to avoid Dell PC's.
     
  7. erratum1

    erratum1 What's a Dremel?

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    Ridiculous.. I used to make a product that sold for £16.50 ish and it was bloody hard graft take out of that cost of materials....if only I could have installed Firefox all day.
     
  8. B1GBUD

    B1GBUD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Accidentally Funny

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    Next thing Dell will be asking for double that amount if you've selected the RAID option......
     
  9. murraynt

    murraynt Modder

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    Dell must be desperate.
     
  10. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Apparently the 16.50 is because it's *so* much effort to swap 1 image [without ff] for another [with ff]


    Whilst I typically recommend dell 'tops... when I first noticed the option my first thought was 'are they taking the piss?'
     
  11. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    Hilarious
     
  12. deathtaker27

    deathtaker27 Modder

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    I understand that labor costs money however what they should of done is something like:

    Choose firefox (cost: 5p, 1p for labor, 4p goes to mozilla)

    I think this would be a better way of charging and i can't see mozilla complaining with the donations they will be getting
     
  13. suragh

    suragh Derp

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    I feel sorry for those who fool for it!
     
  14. yuusou

    yuusou Multimodder

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    I'd rather pay those 16 quid for them to remove their bloatware.
     
  15. ffjason

    ffjason What's a Dremel?

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    Mate (despite your great name) - PC's haven't been imaged like this by large (or small) corporations since the days before Windows XP. There are far more efficient tools available for those who know how!

    Not disagreeing with your point just correcting an assumption :)

    You're correct it doesn't cost over £16 every time someone wants to install Firefox, but it probably did cost them thousands of £'s for a single employee to get trained correctly in the software and learn to develop the scripts to deploy Firefox as an option into their already customised images.

    And no - when you're deploying thousands of images a day - manually installing firefox on every one isn't an option!



    I know it sounds stupid but there are costs involved in deploying optional software like this.

    Whether £16+ is justifiable or not is another matter entirely!



    This I totally agree with!!
     
  16. GiantKiwi

    GiantKiwi What's a Dremel?

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    As I said on facebook, this isn't the first time they've done something like this, remember when they did the ubuntu installs on laptops? Ubuntu ones were 60+ more than the windows install counterparts.
     
  17. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    The thing is, on those £250 laptops the margin must be next to zero. Think about it, if their profit margin on the laptop alone is £2.50, then that's 1% profit on each laptop. Introduce a service like this and that's 7% on each laptop sold with firefox.

    Pricey extras sold to people who don't know better is how much of the IT industry makes its money. Always has been, always will be.
     
  18. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    IIRC Dell make a loss on most of their consumer wares, the money is made on business gear and 'services' [extended warranties etc.]
     
  19. SAimNE

    SAimNE What's a Dremel?

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    if they are going to do this they should go all the way. make all of their software be a checklist. that way you can opt out of any bloatware you dont want, keep anything you might like/use, and i guarantee there are those who'd drop 20-50 bucks in a heartbeat if it meant not dealing with the cluster f of bloatware that comes with the standard pc.
     
  20. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    Given that manufacturers get paid to install bloatware on your system, you're need to pay them extra to get a system without it.
     

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