Michael Dell actually seems like a good, smart dude. He also is a self-made entrepreneur and is always business-first - and this has come at the expense of quality for Dell Computers. Can't wait to move past my Dell XPS and get a MacBook Pro this fall.
From what I've heard of the beginnings of Dell, he was a jerk/bully/opportunist. They sort of had the same beginnings. Dell had his friends building computers in their dorm rooms, against regulations, to sell to other students. And he has bought a bunch of other companies and either sucked them dry, or spun off the carcasses of them when he figured they didn't fit.
I was burned quite a few times by Dell, as a reseller, and was amazed at how many client companies would buy Dell over anything else, in-spite of HP and others being less expensive, and quicker to be delivered. (I had one client that said 'Okay, We'll try HP.', and then let it sit on a desk that was never used, and complained about how no one wanted to use it, but wouldn't get rid of it until years later. It still went through the 'new owner' Windows dance, for Ford's sake... Yet, it was 2 weeks quicker, and over $350 cheaper, and faster than the Dell they bought direct.
That was another thing, they patted themselves on the back about their 'relationship with Dell', and the 'great prices' they were getting. I could undercut those prices all day, and still make enough to afford to drop the box off when it finally came in.
But they sure bought a lot of dedicated fanatic customers with all of their marketing. Stunned... And people thought IBM was crazy...
*shrug*
www.macrumors.com
