Dell Goes Linux

[RSW]

I've been using Dell with Windows 8.1 for years. Have had no problems with it at all. But it cannot handle some of the newer software so I just recently bought another Dell with a SSD and 16 megs of ram which I just might up to 32 megs. Haven't transitioned everything over to it yet. So I have been using both of them for the time being

I think you ment Gigs and not Megs.

 

[Dublin ohio]

I think you ment Gigs and not Megs.

My bad. Good catch. Been a long day

 

[glenn walker]

I pick up Dell refurbished cheap from Dell directly and never had any problems with them.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Windows 12?

 

[RCA]

The most popular computer brands 2025:

By unit sales (consumer market, Amazon Q3 2025):

Per Grok:

1. Laptops (Global Market Share)​

   Rank	Brand	Share
   1	Apple	17%
   2	Lenovo	15%
   3	HP	12%
   4	Acer	11%
   5	ASUS	9%
   6	Dell	7%
   7	Microsoft	4%
   8	Huawei	3%
   9	Razer	2%
   10	Samsung	2%
   —	Others	18%

   Note: Lenovo had 23% global market share in Q1 2024 Accio by unit shipments—Apple leads in revenue due to premium pricing.
   

   ---

   Desktops (Global Market Share)​

   Rank	Brand	Share
   1	HP	17%
   1	Lenovo	17%
   3	Acer	13%
   4	ASUS	11%
   5	Dell	9%
   6	Apple	8%
   —	Others	25%

   ---

   All. (SMALL) PCs Combined (Q3 2024)​

   Lenovo's market share of global PC shipments stood at 26.3 percent, whilst HP took a 21.5 percent share. Statista
   The key takeaway: Lenovo and HP dominate by volume, but Apple punches well above its weight in revenue (and dominates in the premium/professional segment where your Mac Studio sits.

==============

SERVERS:

Server Market Share (Q4 2024 - IDC)​

Rank	Vendor	Share
1	Dell Technologies	7.2%
2	Supermicro	6.5%
3	HPE	5.5%
4	IEIT Systems (China)	5.0%
5	Lenovo	4.9%
—	ODM Direct (custom builds for hyperscalers)	47.3%
—	Others	23.7%

Key insight: The ODM Direct group of vendors accounted for 47.3% of total revenue IDC—that's companies like Quanta, Wistron, and Foxconn building custom servers directly for AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Meta. The hyperscalers don't buy Dell or HP; they design their own and have ODMs manufacture them.

Market Size​

• The market has more than doubled since 2020, reaching $235.7 billion in revenue by 2024. BaCloud
• The server market reached a record $112.4 billion dollars in revenue during the third quarter IDC of 2025 alone

====================

MAINFRAMES

Mainframes are a completely different market—much smaller but still critical for enterprise computing. Here's the breakdown:

Mainframe Market Share by Vendor (2024)​

Rank	Vendor/System	Market Share
1	IBM Z Systems	~64%
2	Fujitsu GS Series	Growing (fastest CAGR ~10.8%)
3	Unisys ClearPath	Smaller share
—	Others (Hitachi, HPE)	Remainder

IBM utterly dominates mainframes. Z Systems held 64% of mainframe market share in 2024, reaffirming their role as the default for high-throughput banking and national government workloads. Mordor Intelligence

Market Size​

• The global mainframe market was valued at USD 3.34 billion in 2024 Straits Research (tiny compared to PCs/laptops)
• Growing at ~6-8% CAGR
• North America holds ~41% of the market

Key Industries Using Mainframes​

• Banking & Finance (biggest user—processing millions of transactions/second)
• Government & Public Sector
• Healthcare
• Insurance
• Airlines/Transportation

Cost Context​

A mainframe computer can cost up to USD 75,000, higher than the USD 2,000-USD 3,000 price of an x86 server. Each custom-built mainframe can cost between USD 250,000 and USD 4 million. Straits Research
The mainframe world is essentially IBM's kingdom—they've held it for decades. These machines are workhorses for transaction processing where "five nines" (99.999%) uptime is non-negotiable. Many banks still run COBOL on IBM Z systems for core operations.


============================

The Three Categories​

Category	Market Size	Dominant Players
Mainframes	~$3-5B	IBM (64%)
Servers	~$235B+	Dell, HPE, Supermicro, ODMs
PCs/Laptops	~$170B	Lenovo, HP, Apple, Dell

So Dell is indeed a data center powerhouse—just in the server space, not mainframes.

 

[cashcatz]

Has anyone tried Windows form suites or other software on Linux using Wine?:

Wine 11.0 · wine / wine · GitLab

The Wine team is proud to announce that the stable release Wine 11.0 is now available. This release represents a year of development effort, around 6,300...

gitlab.winehq.org

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

 

[Vermonter]

The main draw to alternate OS is privacy/freedom. A windows kernel based on linux but still proprietary wouldn't really change much from a privacy/freedom factor.

Think the best thing MS could do is improve their applications. Right now they have a captive audience but instead of trying to keep them with a quality user experience, they have them on the verge of revolt with all the garbage.

 

[Vermonter]

It's weird too because I only work in windows for Total and it's been relatively problem free so don't notice the issues. Started helping the wife out with her work applications the past few months and it's been absolutely awful. Applications aren't just difficult, they some times seem actively hostile to the user. Especially the ones that know you are locked in and have no options to leave them behind