Apparently there is another model that you can buy with identical specs between the Linux and Windows versions, and the difference is an even $50. The other 30 on this machine comes from the graphics and various other sundries. Ars Technica mentioned it this morning on one of their Journals I think.
I strongly agree with Rick Cabral.
The average Joe user will first see the $80 price difference, and might buy for that.
Then they’ll go back to CompUSA (or any other mass-market computer store), buy the latest game, put the disk in their machine, and discover that Linux isn’t Windows.
They’ll first complain to CompUSA, then complain everywhere that they can that Dell sold them a lemon.
Whoever is convinced that the time for Linux-for-everyone has arrived should immediately create shrink-wrapped software to sell at big box stores. As far as I can see, that business is still a big gamble.
some people here have weird concepts concerning linux users, some others have no idea about linux and just hold up the microsoft propaganda of ‘everything works on windows’.
i have recently tried to buy a computer from dell (desktop, notebook) and i haven’t been able to find one without windows.
now not only do i not want to buy a product that i don’t use. i also REALLY don’t want to PAY for a product that i don’t even get. and with microsoft’s business practices (remember netscape ?) and annual profit i really don’t want microsoft to get my money. especially not with the crap they now put into vista.
as for apple, they have been ahead of microsoft, operating system wise, for years. years ahead actually. and microsoft has been stealing features from apple for decades. and of course made them sound new. (like the oh so new recycle bin that microsoft introduced a decade after apple had it)
as for linux: especially recently linux has become a reasonable alternative to windows. not only did it become much easier to use, it also got all the programs that anyone could ever need (openoffice, firefox, etc.). and all of them free. which is really why i don’t know why anyone pays 1,000 dollars for ms office.
g is dead on…
you have been able to buy dell boxes without windows for years
I have several in my office
also note - if it were not for windows (a commoditized OS) the hardware would still cost a gazillion dollars. I know this is an unpopular view in the ‘we hate M$’ world but it is absolutely true.
Whther MS should continue to profit from it is of course a different question
This won’t happen if Dell makes a modest attempt to market them at the right crowd and emphasizes what they can, and can’t do.
Ubuntu machines are clearly not for the gamers, hence the reason for dumping the fancy integrated graphics.
They are suitable for
a: power users
b: people who just want something for word processing and internet surfing
c: people who just want something to run multimedia on
The majority of the difficulties for people using Linux come from the install process and configuration. This is particularly true with Ubuntu which does not ship with any non-Free software including codecs, browser plugins, and other things that people used to windows would miss.
With these things taken care of by Dell, the only differences between the usability of the Linux machine and the Windows one would come down to the availability of software.
Virtually every piece of propriatory software published today is available for Windows. Users generally have to go to the store, shell out a few bucks (a few thousand for some software, like photoshop or maya)and then install it on their own PC at home. For the ‘average-joe’ noob user, this is just about as daunting a task as any other. (I know I’ve been asked many times to install something that someone else couldn’t figure out how to.) So with Windows both he price and difficulty of new software are definite obstacles.
With the Ubuntu machine however, there is a simple program, which allows users to browse and install hundreds of free programs at no cost and no difficulty. Many of these programs are near or equal in quality to their Windows equivalents. Some are better. OpenOffice is definitely a drop-in replacement for MS Office in most cases, and FireFox is actually what IE7 is meant to imitate. Amarok is definitely better for music listening than WMP or even Winamp (IMO), the Gimp, Inkscape, and Blender are certainly equivalent to Photoshop, and Maya for most uses, and the list goes on and on. Most of the complaints about usability come from people who are already familiar with propriatory version and rely on it to guide their workflow but new users and those willing to take on something different will have very little difficulties.
In addition, there are advantages to the Linux machines besides the price: Linux is far more lightweight than Windows, especially Vista and won’t eat up a full gig of memory and it is far more virus resistant, so far as I know, no Linux virus has survived more than few months in the wild (Unix OSs are simply built in a more secure way, Macintosh has the same advantage). Both these are a major plus to even the ‘average joe’ user who doesn’t want his computer churn under the pressure of running Aero or a virus scanner.
So I think there is definitely a market for Linux on Dell but the impetus will be on Dell to properly market it. They will have to emphasize the advantages and be clear about what the machines can’t do so that they will be bought by the correct people. So it is certainly possible with this to work but it depends on marketing (which Dell is good at).
frankly, this is kind of a yawner. hasn’t walmart been selling lindows boxes for a while now and those boxes aren’t exactly setting the world on fire.
dell caters to a general audience and that audience is used to a windows based environment. i would be highly surprised if these ubunutu boxes comprised more than 1% of dell’s consumer pc sales.
I don’t get the comments about “no mouse, no modem, no software, inferior graphics.”
Re: “no mouse:” You’ve read Jeff’s Developers’ Bill of Rights, right? You should already have a good mouse and keyboard. 
Regarding “no modem:” Excuse me, 1995 called. They want their crappy technology back. (I’ve always wanted to use that meme…)
Regarding “no software:” You’re reading a technical blog. It’s probably safe to assume you don’t really need/want bloatware, least of all MS Works. If you’ve got an MSDN license and this is entirely a development machine, you’re already licensed to put whichever version of Windows on it you want. If your MSDN license is a Universal license, you’ve got Office, too.
Regarding “inferior graphics:” The GMA 950 runs DWM and Aero. Other than gaming, what more do you need?
Okay, so I’m looking at this from MY point of view, not that of say, my mom. Even so, it’d be nice to buy a machine where the first thing I do with it isn’t formatting over a perfectly good Windows license just so I can install my own without all the crap. But then, other than laptops, I build my own anyway.
That does it! I’m not buying anyting new.
IMHO you are missing one point…
In this case Ubuntu it’s not for free, there is surely a fee to install, test it and support the Ubuntu community.
I can guess that the real price of the “naked” hardware should be $550, so the Ubuntu’s fee it’s $49.
This is absolutely legitimate! Open source needs money to take its place.
In the next weeks, I guess, Microsoft will raise down the prize of the OEM license.
BTW this is fresh air for the market!
I think you’ll find that Dell get paid for putting on those extra applications (AOL, Yahoo! Music etc), so some of the $50 difference in the perceived difference will account for that. It’s one of the many ways Dell drives their prices down whilst maintaining a profit.
It makes me wonder if people will buy the Ubuntu version and install a pirated XP on it?
The X3000 adds hardware TL units, pixel shaders, vertex shaders and WMV9 (VC-1) video acceleration. And Intel has fully open source drivers included in X.org that support all of it. Dell didn’t remove it because of lack of support (cheapskates).
And Dell has sold hardware with no OS for a long time. All of their servers have that option (you don’t pay thousands for Server 2k3 when you’re running RHEL). My org buys all of our servers from Dell + Apple, and even the Dells that will run windows get bought with no OS license (we get it direct at edu pricing).
They’ve sold workstations with Red Hat in years past too.
Jeff,
I was sort of disappointed that you didn’t look in to the pricing and just took a superficial view of it. Because if you really dove in to the support options you would see there is about a 200.00 premium on the Ubuntu option. Basically if you get it for the price you have listed above as soon as you get your computer you are on your own with the operating system.
So this forces all the bargain seekers to get mad, and start saying ignorant things like “Microsoft gives me support but Linux doesn’t”, or “call Linux because I have a printer problem”. The problem is that Dell isn’t offering anything they haven’t offered before, you have always been able to get a FreeDOS through Small Business, it is just if you went to Small Business and choose FreeDOS as an option you knew what you were getting your self in to. However it is not really apparent with Ubuntu.
I wrote a short article about this at http://coderjournal.com/2007/05/is-there-really-a-microsoft-tax-when-support-is-involved/
Matt, ubuntu’s choice of software that comes with the os is not to my liking either but I simply meant crapware they are paid to install like toolbars and other garbage.
They may not install crapware on ubuntu in the first generation but if they continue to offer ubuntu they will install it in later versions.
“People always complain about the MS tax in reference to installing other OS’s on a machine. What about us MSDN members that are essentially paying for Windows unnecessarily when it is contained in our MSDN memberships? Bah!”
uh…that’s stupid. MSDN gave you everything. it is meant for developers. it’s like buying a CAR that come with 4 tires. It won’t matter if you already own 4 tires. the car is still sold with 4 tires!
I can totally agree with you that Dell hasn’t been the most open about the availability of FreeDOS, but it has always been an option under the operating systems. Personally I am a HP guy for laptops, and customizing their business laptop has always had the FreeDOS option right out in the open.
I found some interesting articles that’s linked to these messes… xD
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2136181,00.asp
http://www.devside.net/blog/ubuntu-dying-2
http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2007/05/17/why-novell-fan-left-netware-suse-behind/
I’m not sure but most of you might’ve read these… I’m just sharing info, anyway…
I enjoy this war… haha…
Some background on earlier sales of the non-Microsoft OS “FreeDOS” at Dell. Not so free… and very difficult to find.
For a programmers there wasn’t much choice.
You can stick with linux and loss any “.net” stuffs (mainly the visual studio). Mono is a choice for put their .net project not for dev.
You can stick with windows but you can loss some customers with it, mainly if you’re into support.
Or you can install a dual boot, lossing hd space but having the power of two os.
So, for programmers Windows is a nice choice.