Keywords: Dell Ubuntu 7.10 XPS M1330 priceDell has announced that it has started shipping Ubuntu Linux 7.10 as an option for the XPS M1330 laptop in various European countries. U.S. availability will follow soon.
Dell has recently revealed a prime choice for hardware when it comes to Linux users and offers like this one will help continue that trend.
The problem is that Dell might eventually report they're not getting enough demand. In that situation I wouldn't be surprised - I don't think people will be stupid enough to the point of paying £100 more just to get Ubuntu installed - it's not something hard to do.
I went to the trouble of configuring the systems with the same hardware - even with the fingerprint reader - and the price is indeed lower, until they give these nice discounts to Vista machines.
This is not the way to do things. Obviously it is necessary to cover some R&D cost but since Ubuntu is free, the least to expect is that they charged the same, like they did for some other OS offers, and not more.The situation in Dell Spain is the same.
In the U.S, the laptop available does enjoy a $45 lower price with a DVD burner instead of a combo drive, a more than enjoyable difference.
I do believe that there really is demand for Ubuntu Linux, there has been for some time - not in these terms though.If you are going to give users free, open-source software, have the decency to, at least, not price the machines higher - the software doesn't cost you a thing and I'm pretty sure Windows machines have it's R&D costs of they're own.
By the way, Ubuntu support is paid for, if you want it.
Edit:
The situation holds the same for the Inspiron 6400 laptop albeit with a smaller difference.
4 comments:
Looks like the Ubuntu machine is 75 quid cheaper, look at the List prices. I know that seems silly, but if you have a Dell coupon they override the built in discount when you use them.
It indeed looks silly. Especially when they list the 6400n, in the US, with a lower price than the 6400. Same specs, both machines get discounts.
Just doesn't seem right.
Best regards
It's great news that a major distributor is going to offer Linux on new machines, but it's ridiculous that they would charge a premium to do so.
Don't they have to pay some kind of licensing fee when they sell a machine with Vista on it?
Maybe they could just start selling machines with no operating system on it... and we could choose for ourselves. That'd be nice.
It would be good. The problem is then Microsoft would go after the vendors because they "would be encouraging piracy".
It has happened already, can't seem to find the article though.
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