The More Dell Lies, the More Ubuntu Community Embraces Dell

[greggh]

http://www.devside.net/blog/dell-ubuntu-lies

Having priced similar Dell Ubuntu and Vista systems in the past, at a real difference of a whooping 10 dollars, I was curious to check in again and see if Dell has implemented anything the user-base of IdeaStorm have asked for.

One particular thread caught my attention:
Ubuntu Dell is $50 Less Than Windows Dell — Implemented.

Lets take The Flavor Challenge and build two same-spec 1420 Notepads:


Note “Jet Black [Included in Price]” on 1420 Ubuntu
Downgrade to “Jet Black [subtract $20]” on 1420 Vista

Note “FREE! 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz [Included in Price]” on 1420 Vista
Upgrade to “2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz [add $150]” on 1420 Ubuntu

Note “FREE! 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) [Included in Price]” on 1420 Vista
Upgrade to “Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) [add $125]” on 1420 Ubuntu

Note “Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [Included in Price]” on 1420 Ubuntu
Upgrade to “Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [add $25]” on 1420 Vista

Total:

Inspiron 1420 [Vista] $824
Inspiron 1420N [Ubuntu] $1,049

The people asked, and Dell delivered! And only at $225 more for the Ubuntu offering.

Say this with me: Dell has no intention of selling, or making money, from non-Windows consumer and commodity PCs/Notepads. The Linux community is being used to generate free publicity and in turn sell Windows Licenses.

A bit ironic, don’t you think so?

[Vogateer]

I'd like to know more about how Dell prices these things and makes decisions about how to make an upgrade free.

Anyhow, I doubt it's an attempt to deliberately sabotage their linux offering as the site suggests, though I could be wrong. We'll have to see.

[jsusanka]

http://www.devside.net/blog/dell-ubuntu-lies

Having priced similar Dell Ubuntu and Vista systems in the past, at a real difference of a whooping 10 dollars, I was curious to check in again and see if Dell has implemented anything the user-base of IdeaStorm have asked for.

One particular thread caught my attention:
Ubuntu Dell is $50 Less Than Windows Dell — Implemented.

Lets take The Flavor Challenge and build two same-spec 1420 Notepads:


Note “Jet Black [Included in Price]” on 1420 Ubuntu
Downgrade to “Jet Black [subtract $20]” on 1420 Vista

Note “FREE! 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz [Included in Price]” on 1420 Vista
Upgrade to “2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz [add $150]” on 1420 Ubuntu

Note “FREE! 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) [Included in Price]” on 1420 Vista
Upgrade to “Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) [add $125]” on 1420 Ubuntu

Note “Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [Included in Price]” on 1420 Ubuntu
Upgrade to “Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [add $25]” on 1420 Vista

Total:

Inspiron 1420 [Vista] $824
Inspiron 1420N [Ubuntu] $1,049

The people asked, and Dell delivered! And only at $225 more for the Ubuntu offering.

Say this with me: Dell has no intention of selling, or making money, from non-Windows consumer and commodity PCs/Notepads. The Linux community is being used to generate free publicity and in turn sell Windows Licenses.

A bit ironic, don’t you think so?

I don't know but I just went through it with the 1420 and the only difference I came away with was the memory, hard drive, and color.

I bought the security suite and student office version and that made my vista laptop $1,067 - I would say that is comparable to open office which comes with ubuntu.

my ubuntu laptop I kept at 1 gig and it stayed at $774

the wireless cards come on both laptops with no cost. maybe they changed it I don't know.

ubuntu doesn't really need two gig but if they are having a special on memory why aren't they applying it to the ubuntu laptops - mmmm
from what I heard vista needs 2gig to be usable but then you are only getting home basic and it doesn't have all the 3d stuff - so go figure.

wonder if you called and insisted on the 2gig without a price increase they would give it to you.

also the hard drive seems like kind of a rip off too but if I added that it would bring the ubuntu laptop to $899. still almost a couple hundred cheaper. and then even if you added the memory for 150 the ubuntu laptop would still come out cheaper and you would not have to worry about renewing your security subscription.

one last item is I don't understand the color selection - why can't they have the same amount of free colors? weird

it does seem like they are making it kind of hard to chose the ubuntu ones for the common user. I mean the color maybe enough to turn somebody off of the ubuntu one and chose windows because they have more free colors.

also they can't piss microsoft off while they are doing this because they do not want to lose that money stream just yet. so that is probably why they are doing this so they can stay a microsoft partner and still sell linux. or maybe dell is doing microsoft a favor by offering linux to keep the European Union and the DOJ off their backs. who knows but at least they are offering linux and to me that is a good thing - isn't it?

[Anonymous]

For starters one would or perhaps should approach that site with a bit of caution in the sense that it's a DeveloperSide.NET blog which to me would indicate to be connected with Microsoft which seems to have it's fingerprints all over it and would appear to be somewhat biased. And for someone to make this comment:

The Linux community is being used to generate free publicity and in turn sell Windows Licenses.

surely doesn't have a clue to the fact that many people are looking to roll back to XP because Vista just isn't cutting it as promised. I listen to many tech podcasts that cover many things and Buzz Out Loud is one that I listen to on a daily basis. Their latest show #512 was quite interesting to say the least. Check it out - at least the first 15 minutes or so.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11455_7-6457370-1.html

[Vogateer]

I just ran through and did the test myself and came out with a $150 difference in favor of the Vista machine, mostly because of the very high markup on the hard drive and RAM when upgrading the Ubuntu machine. You can get away with 500 MB of RAM on the Ubuntu machine easily, and have a comparable experience. I don't know why the upgrades for the Ubuntu machine are considerably more, but it's obviously something to keep in mind.

I used that $350 coupon to buy one, and I don't know how much a difference it makes when you start taking those coupons into account. The coupon deal already passed, though, so I can't really test that anymore.

[jsusanka]

http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/7 ... _Linux_PCs


here is a link to the problem in idea storm - let them know.

[Patrick]

http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/7 ... _Linux_PCs


here is a link to the problem in idea storm - let them know.

Done. I will bring this up with John Hull tomorow night. Even though he's an engineer he might be able to at least pass on the question to management/marketing. The machines should cost the same across the board unless M$ is giving them money to offer as discounts. M$ might actually do something like that.

[CptnObvious999]

one last item is I don't understand the color selection - why can't they have the same amount of free colors? weird

Well I'm sure they are not selling as many ubuntu laptops as vista ones so since they are not mass producing them as much they want to encourage people to use one color which would make production for a less popular model easier. That's what I'm guessing anyways, I have no actual proof. Maybe that's the same reason certain hardware upgrades are more as well....

I dunno, I ordered mine anyways.

[Vogateer]

Just curious CptnObvious999, which computer did you order? I've been wanting a laptop for ages, and I'm looking forward to finally getting one. And looking on the bright side—assuming I'm not mistaken on this—I didn't let any money go to Microsoft. I'm willing to pay a bit more just for that.

I bought the 1420N, and though many may not care for my taste, I thought the Ruby Red color adds a bit of panache to it.

[CptnObvious999]

Just curious CptnObvious999, which computer did you order? I've been wanting a laptop for ages, and I'm looking forward to finally getting one. And looking on the bright side—assuming I'm not mistaken on this—I didn't let any money go to Microsoft. I'm willing to pay a bit more just for that.

I bought the 1420N, and though many may not care for my taste, I thought the Ruby Red color adds a bit of panache to it.

The Inspiron 1420, I got it in black because with my desktop I have a whole black and grey theme going on with everything. Unfortunately the laptop is not going to be shipped until early next month...

[Vogateer]

Yeah, that's the disappointing thing. Looks like mine isn't scheduled to arrive until July 30. Nineteen days seems like a long time, and I feel like I've been spoiled with NewEgg's shipping.

[dann]

It took System76 less than a week to ship my laptop (shameless plug).

[Vogateer]

On another note, Dell went in and added the RAM and Hard Drive update to the Ubuntu notebook. I read somewhere else that it won't last long, and I don't know how long the upgrades last for the Windows machine, but interesting to see a response, nonetheless.

It took System76 less than a week to ship my laptop (shameless plug).

Yeah, that was a tough choice for me, a part of me wanted to buy from System76, since they did it before anyone else. Then the other part of me thinks that a big company like Dell having success is one of the few ways to get hardware manufacturers to open up the specs to their hardware. I still feel conflicted.

[CptnObvious999]

It took System76 less than a week to ship my laptop (shameless plug).

Yeah, that was a tough choice for me, a part of me wanted to buy from System76, since they did it before anyone else. Then the other part of me thinks that a big company like Dell having success is one of the few ways to get hardware manufacturers to open up the specs to their hardware. I still feel conflicted.

Same for me, however price was a large part of my decision and I wanted to have a Santa Rosa Centrino laptop so I went with Dell.

[Patrick]

The problem has been rectified and it's good to see Dell reacting in a positive manner. Props to them.