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133 Comments
- EnderTheThird, on 10/12/2007, -4/+125This is great news! I was hoping I could buy an Ubuntu laptop for cheaper than a Vista one, and now it looks like I can. I doubt it will be significantly less expensive due to how cheap Dell gets Windows via volume licensing and all the crapware they throw on your computer with Windows, but oh well... baby steps, right? Even just $50 would be a nice first step.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+89An 8th Grader with a laptop! What a spoiled brat! In my day 14.4kbs modems were ridiculously expensive, and you had to work for weeks shovelling horse ***** on some crazy farm for some guy you were sure was a pedophile. Then once you had it it took forever to get it to work on your computer, which was just the guts of other computers you got out of your neighbors trash. That frankenstein like ***** beast ran Windows 3.1 like a mule in reverse and you had to wait forever for a node to open up on a BBS to check your fidonet mail. And back then we were excited when BBS's acquired the ability to be two colors. Black AND white.
Get off my lawn! - Niten, on 10/12/2007, -12/+67Sure it's great news for us, but I can't help but be afraid that the average Joe, seeing that Windows costs, e.g., $30 more than Ubuntu, will just assume that Linux is a "budget" option rather than a full-fledged Windows alternative.
- geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+53Dell's ubuntu laptop will surely have linux-friendly hardware so this won't be a problem.
- manfromfuture, on 10/12/2007, -1/+50maybe dell will make crapware for Linux and pre-install it on their ubuntu machines.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -5/+51@minosen
Dell offers no OS, which is more expensive than having Windows preinstalled. Offering a system that is less expensive without Windows, for whatever reason, can cause Microsoft to charge Dell more for each sale or set punishments ("You must advertise Office 2007 on your front page for no less than 3 months"... which they *have* done in their previous negotiations, if you read them).
Further, each system, especially on the lower end, comes bundled with a terrible amount of crawpware, spyware and other malware bordering on making the system unstable and slow to the point of being nearly unusable. Dell (and every other OEM seller) doesn't do that to their customers because they hate them, they do it to turn a profit by offsetting the cost of Windows. If you pay Dell enough, they will send you a system without any of that crap installed.
I see how you called him an as-yet uneducated adolescent. If an '8th grader' can make a statement, giving an answer that was previously thought to be the opposite (see each Dell/Ubuntu artical on Digg, Slashdot or OSNews) regarding what is a widely understood MS monopoly-protection pricing scheme, then why would an educated and well informed person such as yourself post a comment that appears uneducated, juvenile (eighth grade) that adds no intelligent discourse or weight to the discussion of this article? - afx1, on 10/12/2007, -4/+42@HabboX "Crapware? I bought several Dell Optiplex computers about 6 months ago with Windows XP Professional. There was nothing installed other than the OS. I believe there was some antivirus software included on a seperate CD-ROM."
The business PCs don't have the crapware. It's the home models that do. - lolgamoff, on 10/12/2007, -6/+39@hostilefreak:
What kind of lawyer thinks Ubuntu is illegal? jesus tapdancing christ, that lawyer must be horrible at life. - thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31Pfffft....
Rich kid and his 14.4k baud modem. I got to watch the screen be drawn with my 9600baud. - scabbers, on 10/12/2007, -4/+32Stop hogging the blunt, pass to the left.
- kent1146, on 10/12/2007, -7/+32I guess $1, Bob.
- ArcOrion, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27I guess $31.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -14/+38Isnt the real choise then, should you go for a dual boot of Vista and Ubuntu for 50 bucks? - Personally i would mostly because im not yet familiar with linux and due to most programs is still made for windows.
- Vindicated, on 10/12/2007, -6/+26I used to be a Dell employee. The problem I see with is that Dell's customer base is generally non-computer savvy. People look on the website and will customize the computers 5-10 times, but when they are ready to buy they often pick up the phone and call Dell's 800 number or walk into a mall and go to one of their Dell Direct Stores (kiosk).
Once you talk to a Dell rep it really doesn't matter what you want. You want to know what really happens?
People come to me saying they want this system open source system they seen in this flyer & was recomended by their geeky co-worker and they are told to get it. its only $499 & comes with blah blah blah, perfect for their needs. And they would give me a 10 min lecture on how they need a PC just for "basic internet use."
At Dell your trained to religiously follow their "model of control" style of selling. Its pretty slick... almost used-car salesmen like, but with a dell shirt and a nice smile.
So I'd say to the customer, I understand you really just want the best computer for your money right? (response: yeah). Not a problem, I'm going to help do that for you. Are you going to pay using your Dell Preferred Account? (response: no I have a CC). That's cool. Hey fill this out real quick. Nice... well your qualified for $4,000. Still want to use your CC? (Response: yeah) No problem. So you came here because your upgrading your old pc (response: yeah it's just to slow). Oh I hate slow computers. You turn on the PC then roast a turkey and come back and it's barely loading. If you get this PC in this flyer I'm going to be honest with you. You can't run Norton which is the #1 anti-virus in the world (ha!), you won't be able to use or run Microsoft Office 2007 which is the defacto standard in Office suits. Don't you want Microsoft Word? And your worried about spyware and spam and all that nasty stuff right? Maybe even want to edit photos, remove red eye, etc. And what if you need help with your computer? Don't you want to just be able to ask a family member or your next door neighbor? Having Windows Vista will do that for, plus it's just really easy and virtually idiot proof to use. Windows Vista is built by Microsoft, a mulitbillion dollar company. Any security vunabilites are fixed right away... linux is made by volenteers. Its a free product, the developers come and go and in just a years type it could be a dead OS with no support and no more updates. Plus tell me what your co-worker runs? Is it a cheap $400 system? No of course not. Is it a $4,000 super computer. No its not that either. A average system is usually around $2000, but I'm not going to try and sell you on a $2,000 PC (ha! watch me).
Here look at this system.... It has 200GB of HD, just enough to handle your photos and a little but of music. By the way do you own an MP3 player like an iPod? (response: yeah I just got one for x-mas I might be downloading music, is that enough HD). Well it may be, but just to be safe let's go with the 300GB drive. Its only $80 more and thats a lot cheaper then buying a new drive + cost of installation down the road. (response: alright makes sense). Now this pc bundle comes with a 19" LCD monitor, MS Works, CD burner to burn & backup all your data. Norton Anti-virus & Anti-Spam (its really a free trial but your not gonna tell them right?). Lets put in 2GB or mem because we don't want a slow PC.
[15 min later] Ok sir, this system is just enough to last you for a good 4-5 years. Its just for basic internet use like you asked for but we adjusted a few things like increasing the HD to handle your needs. It has Vista Home Prem, Office 07, 19" LCD monitor, 2GB em, 4 yr warranty w/ accidental damage, Cosmeo for the kids, And the Total Price sir... well hey look I'm going to give you $100 off because you brought in that flyer and I know you have a CC but right now we have a promo. You can get 18 months interest free. Your CC is going to have interest right? So this is like paying with cash except you can make small payments. Can you afford $55 a month? (response: yeah thats no problem but I just rather pay it in full). Okay great, because you can pay it all in one payment or in 100 payments. Its up to you. Personally I say break it into like 3-4 payments of a few hundred dollars that way it doesn't hurt your wallet as much. Plus you got over a year to pay it off. Can you do that? (response: yeah let's go for it). Okay fill this out. great your approved. Lets buy this PC (response: how much is it?). With all the options it's just under $1,900 and that includes all those special discounts I gave you. (response: thats a little high). Yeah but you got a year.. plus like I said, just make payments. (response: yeah alright lets do it. I just want a good PC). Don't get a cheap PC sir. You'll be wasting your money. This will last. (response: let's do it!) Done. Thank you sir, now get the hell outta my store.. haha just kiddin sir. Have a good day.
Customer came in to spend $500 asking for some open-source PC they heard about from a geeky co-worker and almost always end up paying close to $2000 before taxes. I seen that every day.
Its because people who buy Dells buy them because you hear about dell everywhere. Even with all the people saying Dell sucks... what and HP is better? And Gateway? Pssh. They all suck. So you ignore the rumors, ignore the fact that support is in India. I hated support and I worked with them. Couldn't understand a damn thing. The phone lines suck and you got disconnected from the call all the time & wait hold times often exceed an hour. But people still buy because of the name Dell and because your work, school, and church all use Dells. Even your favorite shows have dell PCs in the background. If you really know about computers you either build them yourself, have a local PC shop build it for you, or go with the little indi shops (falcon, voodoo, ABS, etc) who sell insanely high priced but high quality systems.
Well yeah sorry about this rant but Ubuntu on a dell. Who cares. They been selling Linux systems for years. Its all a marketing ploy and the systems rarely if ever sell. F*** dell, it's a ***** company and their reps are nothing but sharks trying to rip you off. - Stemp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20if it works with Ubuntu it will work with your distro of choice, dumb ass.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19It's nice to able to buy a Dell without paying for a Windows license;).
- HalFTW, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20I guess $30 less.
- SAOSiN, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Arcorion, thats cheating!
- mattmcm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19@mrfx2 (#6529936)
Hey, now, what about Windows Me? That redefined the word "*****". As much as you might hate Vista, you can't call it the worst OS ever. - thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16@gahzinia
That's exactly the point with Linux. One particular version may not be to your liking... but there's dozens more to try out and see what fits. What I liked about ubuntu is that its based on Debian. And not the three-year old stable version either. It's probably one of the slickest package management systems out there and will be improved even more when CNR is added in.
But like you said. To each his own. - andburn1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18That kid is such a pimp.
And it'll be nice to use Ubuntu and just have everything work right out of the box. No downloading drivers and setting up *****. - mattmcm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17@andburn1 (#6530049) said: "No downloading drivers and setting up *****."
To be honest, that's how Ubuntu is anyway. I installed Ubuntu two days ago and it installed drivers for everything except my wireless USB adapter. So, kudos to the developers on that front. - shucklak, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18"What they should do is offer both together: put Windows on one hard drive and then Ubuntu on a second hard drive. I would pay extra for my computer to come dual boot capable."
You'd pay extra for that?? It there not enough front page tutorials on how to dual boot on Digg yet?? - mazza558, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Laptops are so cheap these days.
- NoTiG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14holy mother! this i wasn't expecting. i figured the price would be the same or even more expensive.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14@thcobbs
Oh yeah. I remember when my friend and I both got out 9600 baud modems and him calling me up one day:
"I got a number for this BBS off of a guy at the library and you're never going to believe this...there's at least 12 door games and over a dozen people who play Operation Overkill."
"...you're a liar."
I think about this when I see people playing WoW...how massive some of these games are. It almost makes my head explode when I think about how different things were just a decade ago. Viva Technology! - xutopia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Well actually the obvious isn't always what you may think. Dell actually made money by installing extras on Windows machines. Microsoft also had for the longest time a disfavorable licensing scheme that made Dell pay a Windows license for each computer sold regardless of the operating system installed on it. Before it became illegal due to anti-trust lawsuits Microsoft's license made it impossible for Dell to sell a computer with a different OS unless they were willing to pay twice as much for each license.
- Durrok, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13What was the wireless card? I may be able to direct you to a fix
- xptweakerntn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Actually it isn't common sense. Not paying for Windows means Dell isn't getting paid by all of those companies that reinstall stuff on your Windows machine. You know what I am talking about, all of that 30 day free trial stuff that comes on there, well, they pay
Dell to put it on there. Buying a pc with Linux means not paying for the Windows, but then Dell isn't getting that extra money from the companies. It could, in theory, be more expensive (In that case, buy one with Windows, nuke the drive, and then install Linux yourself). - binaryspiral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11My grandma could use Ubuntu... since she's from the generation that actually isn't afraid to read or follow instructions - I'm sure she'd be better off on ubuntu.com for assistance than calling Dell's support lines and speaking to "Mike" or "Joe" from india.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12@hostilefreak
We're on digg men, we can check the facts and still digg you down. - Judicata, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Or Dell could find some trial software to put on the Linux box. Of course, this would lead to the crucifixion of Dell by the Open Source community (and rightly so).
- Judicata, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11@caluen
Understood. The focus of this development isn't so much about price. I mean, it isn't like you couldn't get a free Linux CD and install it, and of course it won't take too much off the price - its about freedom of choice. Of course, if no one takes Dell up on the offer, it will be purely symbolic (and temporary).
Similar to your issue - some employers require use of certain Windows software (booo), and if you aren't sure about that, you might be better off getting the Windows license. If an employer requires use of some Linux software (unlikely, because must of it is ported to Windows, b/c it is open source), you can always install Linux for free later. Installing Windows later is more expensive.
Me? I wiped my computer clean anyway, so I would take the Linux option. - cantormath, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13BRAVO DELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This almost brings tears to my eyes. I didnt think I would see such a headline for years to come. We ALL need to keep this one at the top of Digg for a while. Bravo Dell, Bravo!
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11~$150-$200
I'm serious.
As a company who buys dell, we spec'd in a computer for me when I took over some ppc embedded work with linux. I had them strip the Windows OS as I was going to use linux and they just dropped the price by $150. It also came branded with the "N series" logo and FreeDOS pre-installed. - jkndrkn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Interesting. Maybe we will see an influx of non-techie Linux users?
Dell should better do a good job of hand-selecting their hardware, making sure video works flawlessly, and making sure Flash and Java are installed and working on every system. Otherwise, their tech support department may end up swamped with complaints from users looking to buy a cheap PC only to realize that it requires a bit more babying than a Windows system in order to perform certain functions non-technical Windows users take for granted.
Granted, Dell will probably have to pay licensing costs to pre-install non-free codecs and plugins. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8And THAT is th spirit of Ubuntu right there, helping out.
- b0wl0fud0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@bryan986
"The less frequent variations viri and virii are virtually unknown in edited prose, and no major dictionary recognizes them as alternative forms.... To complicate matters further, viri is already used in Latin as the plural of vir, meaning "man"
Virii is incorrect... viruses is the correct plural form of virus. - powatom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6When you buy a machine with Ubuntu (or any Linux distro for that matter), you can be sure that all the hardware is going to work flawlessly. That's really the main benefit here. The biggest setback for most people hoping to switch to Linux is that some piece of hardware doesn't work immediately. Hopefully, Dell being the first to offer Linux preinstalled should improve the situation. If Dell is successful, then other vendors may start doing the same, and eventually the problem will be a thing of the past.
- Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9@pixel and nose
They keep OS X tied to the Mac platform for a reason - to get people to buy their overpriced computers. It would make no sense at all for Apple to release OS X for the PC; their profits would disappear.
'Apple should just abandon their business model' comments turn up a lot on digg... - powered76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6All the Kernels are the same. If it works in Ubuntu, it will probably work in anything else such as Knoppix, Debian, Fedora, etc. Its all the same makeup.
- djGentoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I've got an Inspiron 2500 (upgraded to 40GB HD and 256MB RAM), and I'd say it's time for an upgrade. I'm short on cash right now, and this will definitely help. (Got my eye on an Inspiron 1501.)
- heffae, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I don't care so much about the price difference personally I Love Ubuntu but still need to dual boot (games and all) so the really exciting thing about the Dell Linux thing is that we will have computers (especially laptops) with hardware that will know will work 100% without having to do much research (Though with my current laptop more hardware was supported by Ubuntu than Vista on install)
- stmiller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Dell already sells computers with 'FreeDOS' which actually cost as much as the same computer with Windows. So there was speculation if the Ubuntu machines would actually be cheaper.
- Renton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Dell Lattitude C600 (current bestselling laptop on amazon.com) = $333
Xbox360 = $400
He also could have built the laptop himself without needing to drop $150 on windows. - bmwboy2844, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yeah, also, it shouldn't be loaded with crapware I don't think, maybe stuff like google toolbar and Adobe Reader, but nothing like Windows is....
- gahzinia, on 10/12/2007, -9/+13""It's really the first one that I felt comfortable using as a home user," Helm said."
Wow. I tried it for a few days and didn't like it at all. At the time I tried it out, I was a 100% Slackware user. I've since moved to Fedora / RHEL, but all three of those other distros I've liked better than Ubuntu. *shrugs* whatever. Use what you choose :-) - harlowsmonkeys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I tried to resist the urge to be pedantic...but failed. People did not have 9600 baud or 14.4k baud modems. The had 9600 bit/second or 14.4k bit/second modems. The baud rate was much lower.
The baud rate is the signaling rate, not the data rate. That is, it is how many times a second you change the signal. When there are only two possible states of the signal, the baud rate and the bit rate are the same. But if you have more than two possible states of the signal, each signal change encodes more than one bit, and the bit rate is higher than the baud rate. For modems, this started with the 1200 bit/second modems, which were 600 baud, and the disparity between baud rate and bit rate got higher with the faster modems. - theblackgecko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The vast majority of Dell's sales are over something called the Internet. These buyers are savvy enough to type www.dell.com into a web address and go through a customization process.
I'm not entirely sure what is so high pressure about Dell's website. Admittedly, I know more than the average bear when it comes to computing, but going to the website and clicking on notebooks brings up a $549 Inspiron and $1,199 XPS. The Inspiron models are reasonably priced.
Just because you were a major @$$hole to get better commissions doesn't mean that the company you worked for is wrong in anyway. -
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