In Memoriam: Dell Computer

Fake Steve Jobs wrote a fantastic essay on why Dell is on its way down:

To think Michael Dell can do at Dell what I did at Apple is like thinking that if you give Michael Dell a striped shirt and put him in Picasso's old studio and let him buy supplies from Picasso's supplier then you'd have another Picasso. No. Apple is just that -- it's my paint store, the place I get my brushes and canvases and frames and smocks and the metal or clay or whatever Picasso used to make his sculptures. Apple is the loft where I do my work and make love to my nude models. Figuratively speaking. It's the kitchen where I pose for wacky photos with loaves of bread.

The truth on Dell? Dell is Gateway. Dell is Kaypro. Dell is Osborne Computer. It's DEC and DG and Apollo. It's a flower that bloomed and now must die. It's roadkill. It's mulch. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a good thing.

[From Fake Steve Jobs]

I have a love-hate relationship with Dell computers that goes back more than ten years. It always frustrated me that their servers and desktop machines were so good, while their laptops, well, at least every single Dell laptop I have ever used, are shit. My last Dell laptop was less than one year old when handed to me at work, it was twice as thick as my previous laptop, a 15" Apple Powerbook G4. It also weighted about 10 pounds and its battery was already fried. The LCD screen eventually died, but at least it was replaced under warranty. The chassis CREAKED (I had an Apple iBook, which was mostly polycarbonate shells around a magnesium space frame, and that damn thing was sturdier than the Dell).

Still, it bothers me to see the company sucking on it, because they are my preferred source for cheap and reliable servers.