Why doesn CS support Dell, IBM, Micron, [insert favorite vendor here]?
Some vendors ship their computers pre-installed with Redhat Linux and provide direct support for that configuration. CS prefers to only deal with vendors who directly support Linux since many large commercial vendors require that the exact Windows installation, as shipped with the product, be installed before they will provide any technical support or an RMA. Most vendors won’t even include Windows installation media with newly purchased workstations, they simply supply a “Windows repair” CD which can only be used with that specific workstation. To make matters worse, most large vendors won’t even provide specific details of the hardware included with each line of workstations, either as line items in a quote or documented on their web page, preferring instead to distribute the cheapest components on the open market at any one time for any given product line. Given these factors it’s nearly impossible for CS to support a wide range of products from large commercial vendors: we don’t ha
