Woman Blames Dell For Missing Online Classes

27 News broadcast an update to this story on Thursday after more than 130,000 people read the story online.  We received hundreds of viewer emails, phone calls, and web comments.  You can watch the follow-up television report that aired on WKOW-TV or read the updated web story by clicking this link.

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MCFARLAND (WKOW) -- Abbie Schubert paid more than $1,100 for a Dell laptop hoping to enroll in online classes at Madison Area Technical College, or MATC.

But something stopped her: she bought an operating system for her computer she never heard of, Ubuntu. 

That's an operating system for your computer similar to Windows that contains Linux.  It's highly regarded among some people and extremely popular with certain circles of computer users because it's free.

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 until learning that she accidentally bought it.  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.

"The person I was talking to said Ubuntu was great, college students loved it, it was compatible with everything I needed," said Schubert.

So she stuck with it.

Later, she discovered Ubuntu might look like Windows, but it doesn't always act like it.

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.

She also says Dell claimed it was now too late to get Windows and any changes she made herself would void her warranty.

"I'm extremely frustrated," said Schubert. "I wanted to get back to school, but I needed a computer to be able to do that."

27 News contacted Dell, but the company has not responded to us yet.

However, we think we've helped her get back to school.

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.

Send comments to Dan Cassuto at dcassuto@wkowtv.com.

Also, click here to read our Assistant News Director's blog regarding the debate on this subject, "Ubuntu on the Brain".

Dell's website does everything possible to make you avoid buying Ubuntu stuff, and it is very clearly stated that it is not Windows. This is like buying a HD-DVD instead of a Blu-ray player and then saying it's someone else's fault (the shop, the manufacturer, etc.) that you bought the wrong thing.

Look at the result: Ubuntu is compatible with the internet (Whatever is on the disc isn't anything to do with actually connecting) and with Microsoft file formats, so she can actually use the course. She could even buy a Windows license with the money saved.

The blame could not possibly lie with Linux, anyway. It does exactly as advertised. Nor should this discourage users from trying it - as long as they research it first. If they don't want to, they can just buy a Windows computer, which can be done by checking it says "Windows" in the spec list.

Pretty much what Soleron said. Compatibility lies in absolutely everything; you just have to find your way around.

Get WINE, damnit. WINE + Firefox + Openoffice.org = fix to EVERY problem she has.

There are cases where people's desire to save money overrides their ability to follow directions.

Yes. Linux even connects to Windows networks.

Now if only Linux was as easy and fast to configure as Windows to do these (and other) things...

I'm computer savvy and even I rarely bother with using linux. Only for programming some stuff. I like cygwin, and I have a virtualpc instance of Ubuntu, but other than that it's a waste of my time. There was a time when I bothered with kernel recompilations, configuring modules and the like, but that time is past.

I think a major problem is that Windows and IE became such behemoths that things like computer based courses expect you to be using them.

The blame should solely be on this woman. She bought the wrong product, she couldn't figure out how it works, and she never really tried to fix her problems. Chances are she had a reporter friend and they just wanted some attention. Pathetic.

Surely for the average user, Ubuntu provides a web browser and office package out of the box, as well as having all drivers installed already? In that respect, it requires less setup than Windows. When would someone only using a computer for office or internet (the vast majority of users) have to do anything like kernel recompilations on Ubuntu today?

When they install that snazzy scanner which doesn't have Linux drivers except for some hacked up mess that someone made, and which requires adding C files to the kernel and potentially some small changes in existing files.

Sure, if they only need Firefox and OpenOffice and are never ever going to upgrade their computer, Linux is fine and I'm not denying that. My point is that it's nowhere near Windows in terms of ease of use and trouble-free PC usage (even with all of Windows's problems).

I realize that the fault is largely of the computer industry in not supporting Linux with decent drivers and the such, but that doesn't change the facts of the situation.