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It looks like Dell.ca isn't selling laptops anymore. For reasons (in no particular order) of patriotism, currency and hardware/warranty hassles, I'm interested in buying a laptop with working suspend-to-ram from a Canadian company...does anyone have any suggestions? (I know about the netbooks, but I'm wondering if there's anything else.)

http://www.dell.ca/ubuntu http://www.dell.com/open

On one hand you're telling me that you're paying a premium for style. On the other hand you're telling me that you're not paying a premium for a Mac.

You pay a premium for style. Not a premium for a Mac. If you wanted a Dell with out cable clutter you'd pay the same 'premium'. If you wanted a Sony instead of Dell because they look nicer, you'd pay the same 'premium'. Its not a premium for a worthless apple logo; you actually get something from it.

For digital out, I used a reasonable pair of USB speakers. I don't have a component audio system to plug into, but it drives a pair of Sennheizer headphones very well for me.

One of the things popular to do with a mac mini is to hook it to an hdtv. The wireless keyboard, small form factor, wifi support, optical outputs all combine to make it an excellent unit for that niche.

Sorry I didn't spot the 1.6 GHz machine, I was on the Canadian site.

Its not merely 1.6GHz; its a Celeron.

On the canadian site:
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/inspndt_530_gbb?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs

You get to it:

Home Page:
http://www.dell.ca/

Select 'Home and Home Office' under desktops; that takes you here:
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Its the FIRST computer on the page: "Inspiron Starting from $379" -- That's the computer. I'd hardly call that digging. It doesn't say its got a celeron in it, you have to click a few more times to find out that for 379 your getting a celeron, but the computer itself is prominently shown.

I don't know how it makes your point that you can dig through the site for the cheapest bargain so as to say the mac mini is not obsolete.

I didn't have to 'dig'. The Inspiron I linked is the FIRST computer on the page on the 'home and home office' page. The Vostro is the FIRST computer on the page in the 'Small and Medium Business' page. 2 clicks from the home page for each.

It doesn't prove a point that the mini isn't obsolete. It counters your argument that Apple's entry level machines so obsolete that other vendors don't even sell units so poorly speced. Clearly; in reality Apple is a significant cut above the lowest PC's prominently advertised on the dell.com site.

Ironically, I wanted the thing for amateur video editing.

The mac mini is obviously not a video editing workstation.

After shopping around on the Mac site, I determined that I needed to buy a tower machine just to get an entry level system which would meet my needs.

An imac is a suitable amateur video editing workstation. If an imac doesn't meet your needs then you need more than just an amateur video editing workstation.

FWIW I'm in the same boat. I need a tower form factor for a few reasons, but a Xeon Core 2 Quad is ridiculous overkill in the processer. I want an imac spec'ed unit at an imac price in a tower form factor. The imac is good value for what it is, but I need a tower. Apple doesn't make one at that price point. So I bought a PC instead.

I think a lot of us on slashdot are in this boat.

Haven't personally used an inkjet for about six years. Laser all the way. You can get colour networked laser for home use for about £300, with reasonable sized toners. I even have a Samsung that have a refillable combined toner/drum that's only on it's second actual toner/drum and has been refilled dozens and dozens of times from a £10 toner bottle. Perfect prints every time, used every single day.

Dell Canada does not offer Ubuntu
We currently do not offer Ubuntu or any other open source solution. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Check out the Dell Community forums for additional information.

I went to http://www.dell.ca/ to check out Ubuntu laptop prices and was greeted with this message when I did a search for Ubuntu:

"Dell Canada does not offer Ubuntu
We currently do not offer Ubuntu or any other open source solution. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Check out the Dell Community forums for additional information."

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed. Why isn't Dell selling Ubuntu PCs in Canada?

If?

I guess thats one reason, but let me maybe present another one. The company I work for recently did some outsourcing to India, even though we mostly went through Chicago when the RFP negotiations were going on when it came to the nitty gritty (i.e. the "real" work) communication was a huuuuge problem. Even after we worked that out the quality of the code we got back was, let us say lacking (this might have just been this one company, but I'm just saying...). Anyway, by the time the project was done it cost us more and took us longer than if we had just hired local contractors to do it. Edmonton is kind of a weird place, there are at least four post-secondary institutions pumping out IT grads three times a year, putting it bluntly we have a lot of skilled IT people flipping burgers around town. Getting those people who are still keen on the IT industry (but don't want to move away) into low paying but IT-related jobs isn't exactly hard to do.

Edmonton has always been an IT hub because of the Provincial Government (and the IT jobs it attracts), but in the last decade big IT firms have moved in and paled that aspect of Edmonton's IT community, firms like IBM, Microsoft, Fujitsu, BioWare, Intuit (etc, etc...).

P.S. It's good to see NAFTA finally doing what it was designed to do, form an even stronger economic partnership between the Americas.

P.P.S. If these Indian companies have indeed found a back door to profit in the good ole USA, you can be sure that the Canadian Revenue Agency will be sucking the life-blood from them if they are profitable. If there's one thing our Government knows how to do, it's tax the bejesus out of any pocketbook...

10% off this weekend at their respective online stores (or at least, they are at the canadian versions).

Neither of them seem to be making a big fuss about it, but when you add the product to your cart, the discount will appear.

When buying a laptop, purchase at _least_ up to 2 years, and realistically 3 years of warranty protection.. Its quite inexpensive...

I Bought a DELL Inspiron 8000 laptop, loaded 512 mb ram, cdrw and dvd, 30 gig hd p3-850, 15" 1600X1400 screen, etcc.. cost me $8000 canadaian, including the 3 year complete care warranty($200ish)..

The complete care warrantee will replace anything that wasn't done on purpose... Accidentally drop the laptop, and break the screen, it's replaced.

what is covered

Don't be cheap, pay for the protection next time...

I remember when Dell first starting offering Linux. I wanted to buy two servers. I called Dell, told them I wanted to run Linux but, I wanted to check compatablilty. "Can you tell me what IDE, SCSI, and graphics contorllers you use on brand X server?" The sales rep said he'd call me back. He never did.

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