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To the person who modded this coward troll: http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/bios/erin.aspx

I love computers and think of games all the time.

They're already marketing to your stereotype.

I wonder if the wives of Dell executives are upset, or maybe they're too busy doing the dishes and cooking dinner to even know what's going on...

I dunno. Maybe we should ask the wife of their marketing executive.

She's a lesbian? Proof plz!

I wonder if the wives of Dell executives are upset, or maybe they're too busy doing the dishes and cooking dinner to even know what's going on...

I dunno. Maybe we should ask the wife of their marketing executive.

You are an idiot, and the people who modded you up are bigger idiots. If you would take the time to read the fine summary you would see the words they have no concept of 'ownership transfer' and instead assume that if you're not in their system, you must be a thief.

Do your research.

https://support.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/ca/shared/support/dellcare/en/tag_transfer?c=ca&cs=&l=en&s=gen

https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/change_order/tag_transfer?~ck=ln&c=us&cs=&l=en&lnki=1&s=gen

And while I know there's a link on the Alienware site for the same, I don't have it in my bookmarks, because I don't need it to do my job. You could, however, e-mail support@alienware.com and ask them to give you the link if you felt like looking it up and couldn't find it with the search function on their website.

I *did* read the summary. and I *did* read the article. I'm just saying that the person who posted it is a twat who's talking out of his arse.

You are an idiot, and the people who modded you up are bigger idiots. If you would take the time to read the fine summary you would see the words they have no concept of 'ownership transfer' and instead assume that if you're not in their system, you must be a thief.

Do your research.

https://support.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/ca/shared/support/dellcare/en/tag_transfer?c=ca&cs=&l=en&s=gen

https://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/change_order/tag_transfer?~ck=ln&c=us&cs=&l=en&lnki=1&s=gen

And while I know there's a link on the Alienware site for the same, I don't have it in my bookmarks, because I don't need it to do my job. You could, however, e-mail support@alienware.com and ask them to give you the link if you felt like looking it up and couldn't find it with the search function on their website.

I *did* read the summary. and I *did* read the article. I'm just saying that the person who posted it is a twat who's talking out of his arse.

Go to dells refurb/returned system site http://www.dell.com/outlet/ and look at the dell mini9 systems. Currently I see 40 windows based netbooks and 1 linux based system. Sounds like windows systems get returned much more often to me. Typically the ubuntu based systems stay on the refurb site for a very short time, a month ago I spent a week trying to get one (I finally did get one after hitting F5 I don't even know how many times) during that time 3 showed up on dells site 2 of which I didn't get because someone else was faster then me at buying it.

Right, that's why it's so hard to buy spare parts from Dell's website. </sarcasm>

Right, that's why it's so hard to buy spare parts from Dell's website. </sarcasm>

Right, that's why it's so hard to buy spare parts from Dell's website. </sarcasm>

Look at all the other distros
Pick Ubuntu out of all the others

Pretty well solved. Dell ships Ubuntu. Everyone on Slashdot, even if they use other Distros, will immeditately tell you Ubuntu. Chances are, they may hear about Ubuntu without even hearing about Linux.

Wait and wait and wait for the download

As if you never waited for any other download?

Read a book. Watch TV. Browse the web, check email, or otherwise use your computer.

Or http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Burn it to a disc
Wait let me find a disc

Because regular people have never burned Music CDs. Right.

How do I burn it?

Right there on the download page is a great big header that says "Need help?"

The very first item there links to instructions on burning it.

Ok so I reboot and put the cd in?

Or you can double-click on the Windows installer. It's called Wubi.

Ok my desktop is back
No I didn't get a message asking me to boot from the disc
I have to hit what when the computer is beeping? ... ... ...

The vast majority of new computers are shipped set to boot from the CD, by default.

Ok my internet doesn't work, do I need to get a new email now?
Yeah, it's wireless.

Most wireless now just works.

The wireless that doesn't, can still be made to work -- granted, no user should ever have to know about firmware, but it's still quite possible.

This is somewhat easier on Windows, but still way beyond most users' threshold. That's why they buy a new computer that's already set up for wireless. Let's compare apples to apples.

What about my printer? That's not working.

Really?

I tend to plug in a printer and have it detected and ready to go. If not, it's about as easy to set up as it is on Windows -- System Settings -> Advanced -> Printer configuration, follow the instructions on the screen.

That goes double for cameras. I have yet to see a digital camera that, when I plug it in, doesn't automatically appear, either as a mass storage device (so all your pictures are there), or a photo application.

Linux is NOT for regular people and it NEVER will be.

Based on your knowledge of modern Linux, if it ever is ready for regular people, you'll never notice -- just keep dragging out these arguments that were old in 2005.

This would SMOKE any $500 PC. And you can even install XP on it.

PC people will scour the web for a way to make a cheap computer work well, when they can find it in 2 minutes on eBay.

USED, meh Lets compare new, I'm certain if I searched on Ebay I could find cheap windows boxes. I've bought HP Opteron servers for A$1000 at auctions before but to get them new with warranties it costs.

An outdated Apple Mac Mini with: 1.83 GHZ C2D, 1 GB RAM, 80GB HDD, Intel GMA 950. A$849.

from the same store:
A somewhat more recent Dell: 2.53 Ghz C2D, 2 GB RAM, Integrated Video, 250 GB HDD A$717

Or direct from Dell's web site today, an Insprion 530, most modern of the bunch: 2.53 GHz C2D, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, Intel X3100 GMA A$750.

And XP will work with all three of these. so you were saying about low end mac's? Even they have a markup. To get a near comptetaive mac Mini to the two Dell's you need to go to A$1050 or A$1400

But none of these even come close to being gaming PC's as they all have shared memory video cards. If you want a Mac with a semi decent video card you're looking at over A$2000 for an imac with a mid range ATI or Nvidia card, considering my gaming rig with a high end Geforce GTX 285 cost me A$2200 in total.

Dell won't sell me the Mini 9 without a Windows license

In what country? In the United States, three out of four pictured Dell Inspiron Mini 9 configurations have a "Customize with Ubuntu" button.

The strength of those systems is the number of cores you can get in a single system. A T5440 supports 4 T2 Plus prcoessors which gives you 32 cores. The CoolThreads servers also the number of threads. A 4 socket Core i7 server only has 32 threads while a T5440 has 256.

With clusters of virtualization servers that can move workloads around, 8 servers using the current Core i7 chips would cost far less than a fully-outfitted T5440 (which runs about $150K), and be far more versatile.

The Core i7 is also not a server class processor, it is meant for the desktop and gaming market. It doesn't support ECC memory.

Core i7/Nehalam == poe-tay-toe/pa-tah-toe.

The differences are slight...really, except for ECC, there's not a whole lot that separates the two, since Core i7 is Nehalem, of the "Bloomfield" variety, while the Xeons are "Beckton", "Gainestown", "Bloomfield", and "Lynnfield".

The Nehalem Xeons have been out for a while, and systems are shipping with them, although none use the announced but maybe never actually shipping 8-core models. I suspect that most people will be better off with the 4-core/8-thread models, since this isn't your father's hyperthreading...it really is more like an extra core.

They've got a bunch of immediately available Dell netbooks without cameras at the Dell Outlet Store. I just got a 9" Dell Mini, found a 15% discount coupon, and it shipped less than 24 hours after I ordered it. Most of the inventory I saw had Windows XP Home installed. So you run with the preinstalled XP if you like that, or install Linux/go the Hackint0sh route if you prefer something else.

I don't know what both you and the original question asker are talking about.

I just went onto Dell's website and looked at the first range of laptops that I would ever consider for myself and NONE of the models have webcams? Why?

Because I selected 'Enterprise / Corporate' on the first page and not 'Home - give-me-all-your-crap-that-only-the-children-would-use'. :)

Come to think of it, I've only ever owned one laptop with a webcam, that that was back in the day (>5 years ago) when the only way to get a decent 3d card in a laptop was to go for the home models, since then none of my laptops have them simply because when I buy a laptop I want one designed to work, not look good, etc.

See:
Dell Examples

HP Examples

BTW, pretty much any business model laptop will include a model without webcam, for the exact reason raised by the original questioner.

But you can still get Dell's Mini 9 and System76's Starling Netbook with Ubuntu.
Also, brace for the ARM wave of netbooks this year, such as this 299$ Touch Book from Always Innovating.

"I know tons of people who aren't buying Vista, and since they stopped selling xp, people just aren't buying windows."

Odd.
They're still selling XP from what I can tell.

They people who aren't buying Windows now are the same people who never buy Windows.

As you can see, ANY OEM can easily ship systems with XP. Dell still does. At no extra cost on many systems. Dell. The fucking largest OEM there is. So stop fucking lying.

My Dell Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Bundle will occasionally "drop out" for no apparent reason. Each device dies separately and takes about 5 second to reconnect. The keyboard will occasionally get stuck with whatever key I was hitting in the "down" state, often Backspace, which erases everything I was typing. This leads to loud "aw aw aw!" outbursts, which confuse and annoy my co-workers. For the record, I did not pay $90 for the damn thing either. Dell gave us several as promotional gift a when they came out because we ordered several dozen desktops and laptops.

"In the office environment, 52% of respondents left their machines on for remote access, and 35% did so to support applications running in the background, of which e-mail and IM were most popular (47%)."

Never mind the fact that emails are saved on the server, but is this device is really necessary in case "An instant messenger (IM) client will require the PC to be on in order for the user to stay "online" (reachable) to their contacts."

So instead of telling a significant number of respondents that they really don't have to leave their computer ON to run background applications such as IM and email (unless of course you are running an IM/email server at work or home), the author does a cartwheel while holding a sermon on how to be green.

Now that everybody has get some green in order to be green, something similar but different, here is a bare-bone OS running on a daughter card (PCIe) which allows secure access to the host's hardware even when the host is OFF but the motherboard still has power. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/drac5/OM53/en/ug/racugc1.htm#31825. Works with Dell. A must if you don't have unrestricted physical access to your servers, and every once in a while the main power cycles but your servers don't boot/reboot automatically.

Small correction to the main article, a couple of the authors are from University of California, San Diego and not University of San Diego.

-40C-+85C costs more than 0C-50C, but it costs less than -70C-+120C.

Um, forget about the computer, but at +120C, isn't the user of the computer going to have a bit of a problem? Or does Dell also sell "Rugged Users" along with its "Rugged Laptops? http://www.dell.com/xfr"

"Thank you for ordering a Dell Rugged Laptop, would you also like to order a Dell 'Hard Guy' Rugged User along with that? Ballistic Armor for the laptop, user or both?"

You could get an external drive and possible cluster them together for the enhanced processor power? Dont know but this taptop seems to be able to handle the enviroment you want it to. Also UPS plus Solar Panels = headache so be prepared!

I don't think there are any servers for those requirements:
portable, rugged, low power (incl. UPS)

But those are the exact specs of the rugged laptop. Laptops have built-in UPS units (called batteries) and are low in power consumption.

Panasonic Toughbooks, or Toshiba Tecra ruggedized come to mind. Dell also has some new offerings in that segment:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_xfr_d630?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

You should try an easy distro like Ubuntu.

It's as easy as a Mac, if not easier. This is especially true if you buy the hardware with Ubuntu preinstalled from someone like Dell:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&~oid=us~en~29~linux_2~~

Ok, but I'm not a driveling whiny developer enthusiast that needs to have the bazillion levels of freedom that you need to hack the bejeezus out of your computer. I'm a burger flipper, a tire guy, a mechanic, a professional, or a housewife and I just want the stuff to work.

In that case, the bazillion programs available for Windows shouldn't matter -- only the few you need to work. Additionally, the lack of a need for antivirus, and the ease of keeping your system up-to-date and secure, should appeal to you.

In fact, even a package manager and a distribution should benefit you, in the long run. Choosing software supported by the distro means it'll be maintained, likely forever and for free. Using a distro like Debian or Ubuntu, which has separate stable and unstable versions, means that as long as you're on the stable version, all of that software is known to work together -- no "dll hell", no other strange cases of one piece of software causing another to not work.

I don't want to have to make a stupid decision about which distribution I should download

That's why we say "Ubuntu" and move on.

and I don't want to have to answer nine billion technical questions just to get it installed.

I'm sure someone can verify it, but I don't think Ubuntu asks more questions than XP. If you're a professional, you solve this problem by getting it preinstalled.

I want to have that feeling that there is a company that I can blame,

That would be Dell, who is providing you service, if you followed the above option.

I need to have the feeling that there is a group of people that may benefit from my purchase,

That, I really don't get. Since it can be free, why would you need that? If you get it as a product, with someone to blame (the Dell option), then Dell and Canonical both benefit, and some portion of your money goes directly to improving Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is coming the closest to being a product and it's goals are commendable but it is not a mainstream desktop PRODUCT and never will be.

Why not? Putting PRODUCT in all caps (and bold) doesn't make it a valid point. Your actual points here, I think I've refuted.

Just because it's free doesn't mean it is going to be good and just because it costs a lot of money doesn't mean that it's evil.

This is true. However, the fact that it is free, in a truly level market economy, would mean that anything that costs money would have to come with a lot of added value.

As it is, the closest competitor, in the sense of something for which most software is compatible, might be Solaris (and other commercial Unices), but Solaris was recently open sourced -- Linux dominates that market. OS X might count, except their GUI is so proprietary that a truly native OS X app can't be much more easily ported to Linux than a Windows app can.

I'l probably get modded a 0 flame bait for this

I really hope mods stop falling for this tactic.

Hey, mods, I'm about to say something that people might not want to hear! Some people might mod me down for it! You'd better mod me up to compensate!

I'd have modded you overrated, but I actually have something to say.

Wait, since when is Windows easier to install? You do realize those little recovery disks that computer companies give you were set up by a professional, right? Installing Windows manually can be a nightmare due to drivers though.

On the other hand, I don't see what trouble you could have possibly had installing, for example, Ubuntu. I mean, you pretty much just press a button, choose a time zone, and let it install.

Oh, and don't pull that "But you don't have to install Windows yourself, unlike Linux!" crap. There are plenty of places you can buy preinstalled Linux nowadays.

As for Windows performing "smoother" (I assume that's what you meant) than Linux, what does that even mean? Are you trying to say that it's faster? Perhaps that one experiences fewer problems when using it?

As far as security goes, look at all the viruses for Windows; compare to Linux. It doesn't matter what the reason for that is; it simply matters that the case is that, at this point in time, your computer is incontrovertibly less likely to be compromised using your average Linux box than your average Windows box.

Netbooks are shipping with XP and only XP right now.

Dell's cheapest netbook ships with Ubuntu ($20 less than the XP version)

Del Adamo video? This one? It certainly isn't attractive to me, but what didn't you like about it?

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Dell mini 9
Offered right now with Ubuntu 8.04. Windows XP is too big to fit onto a 4GB flash drive, so Ubuntu is still exclusive on the most low spec offering.

OK, so they are not a brick and mortar store, but still, a whole lot of people get their computers from Dell.

Dell spokesmen say these things are selling well, that about 1/3 of them that are sold run Ubuntu & that they have very low rates of return.

Buy an off the shelf system with a 3 year warranty for ~$500 (the Dell Inspiron 530 fits the bill - http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=dthp&s=dhs). As long as he continues to run the same application, there is no need to upgrade the hardware. He'll be able to buy 5 systems to last 15 years for the price of a system that's guaranteed to last 15 years (is there any such thing?). Using virtualization software will future proof the system by allowing the system to run on any hardware/OS that supports the virtualization software.

This argument goes from "silly" to utterly moot, as if you price a Dell or HP workstation (not "home computer", but under their SMB workstation sections) and go part-for-part, the Dell/HP easily comes out at hundreds more than a Mac Pro.

The thing is that you have to compare Apple to Dells consumer line for just one reason, NBD (Next Business day). Apple support does not know what NBD is and no business I've ever worked with can afford to have a piece of equipment out of service for a week while the service centre buggers around (I've had the pleasure of dealing with Apple warranty repair). Dells SMB/Enterprise line costs more because if there is any problem it gets fixed within 24 hours.

But because you are still wrong I'll run with it.
Mac Pro Cost: A$4404
Xeon 2.66, 3 GB DDR3 1033, Geforce GT 120, 640 GB HDD. No monitor, 1 year limited warranty.

Dell Precision T5300
Initially: A$2961, fully speced: A$3465.
Xeon 2.66, 3 GB DDR3 1033, Quadro FX 580, 745 GB HDD. 19" monitor, 3 year NBD.

Both machines have late model Nehelem cores and the same ram but not only is the Dell a full A$1000 cheaper it has a superior video card (GT is the NVidia gaming line, a rebadged 9600 IRC) and more HDD space as well as the all important 3 year NBD warranty (I'll ignore the monitor because Dell's 19"s are crap, get Samsung's). Not only this but I don't need to buy a Windows license to run ArcGIS, Dell tests Linux drivers on the Precisions and I have enough cash left over to buy a nice entry level Vostro for the Accountant or secretary as well as the piece of mind that comes with NBD, if anything, anything at all goes wrong with the Precision I know that Dell will fix it in 24 hours.

Sorry but youre dead wrong on both points
1. Even the MacPro is a home machine.
2. A high end Dell costs more then a MacPro.

A friend and I have chatted about Mac pricing off and on over the years, and gone to the online stores to configure the closeset head-to-head competitors we could. The conclusion was basically always this: Macs are usually price competitive with the most closely configured computer, but if you don't like that configuration, Apple offers very few options and nothing low-end.

From 10/s7/08:

I remembered that last time you told me to spec a dell vs a mac pro, and I
remember the dell being more. And I was thinking about your comment that
the mac pro delta has seemingly jumped. I was thinking instead that the
Mac Pro, tied to "server/high end workstation class" hardware, seemed to
be in the process of being overtaken by low cost gaming gear.
Workstation/Mac Pro level hardware always contains those intangibles, like
ECC memory and super high io bus speed, raid support, and two processor
sockets - changes that always require your entire hardware setup to "jump
class" and be redesigned from the ground up.

So I went out again to price a comparable Dell.

www.dell.com/precision/
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/precndt?c=us&l=en&s=bsd

Looking at the Mac Pro it's running two 2.8Ghz "Harpertown" Xeon's, the
Dell site uses different lingo, but I selected the same chip, the E5440.
Apple's minimum RAM was 2G, so I matched that on the Dell as well. This is
important because ECC 1066 ram is still incredibly expensive.

Dell's version of the Mac Pro instantly rang up as... $3800. A full $1200
more than the Mac Pro.

So, Macs are still way cheaper. By an ever increasing gap. The cheapest
online price for an E5440 is $700. That means the two chips in a Mac Pro
are $1400 street value, and the Intel s5000XVN motherboard has a street
value of about $550. That makes the rest of the computer worth $850 -
workstation class graphics card, fully buffered ECC ram, case, psu, os,
hard drive. It's dirt cheap. I'm convinced you could bulk buy Mac Pro's at
edu discount and make a margin parting them out on ebay.

So who other than dell is making a dual xeon workstation?

http://www.swt.com/cgi-bin/calc_linux?hdc=x802&cpu=x28&xxcpu=x440&s8fram1=f2k&scsicard=no&fsaraid=no&hd1=sat1&hd2=no&hd3=no&hd4=no&hd5=no&hd6=no&hd7=no&hd8=no&cdmult=dvd&pevideo=onb&ipmi3=no&monitor=no&monito2=no&fd=no&pen1=no&x8case=atx&x8rail=no&multi_mouse=none&multi_keybd=none&spkm=nospkr&printers=no&modem=none&netcard=none&wirel=no&firew=no&tuner=no&taped1=none&taped2=none&power_protect=none&lxx=fe&Quote=Calculate+total%2C+keep+price+increment+information
Base price: Dual Xeon Workstation: $1599.00
Two Xeon E5440 quad-core CPUs, 2.83GHz, 12MB, 1333MHz FSB, 80W:
+=$1295.00
Supermicro X7DWA-N dual Xeon motherboard w/ 2 Gbit LAN ports
IO port: 6 x USB, 1 x Parallel, 2 x Serial, 2 x PS2
2GB DDR2-667 PC2-5300 FB-DIMM, 2 DIMMs
80GB SATA 3Gb/s drive

Total price: $2894.00 (plus shipping)

So a shit-label linux part

Hmmm Microcenter has a Mac Mini for $399 after rebate.

That $399 Mini (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0264432) is the previous model, while the current model (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0307581) is $599. [I had to check b/c I want a cheap Mini, but was sadly disappointed by previous post.]

Since Dell has been the common comparator in this thread, a quick look found the Dell Studio Hybrid, a similarly spec'd & sized product starting at $499. http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-studio-hybrid?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

For what it's worth, I use Apple and Dell hardware.

And then the author concludes:

But HP's and Dell's prices are either comparable (for the 73 GB SAS drive) or $200 to $250 higher (for the 1 TB SATA and 300 GB SAS drives).. . . To sum up, there are multiple good reasons why ADMs cost more than bare retail drives of the same size, it's possible but not recommended to replace the drive in one, and Apple is in no way charging an unusual premium for ADMs.

Parts of this may be true (it's impossible to say, since they don't specify exactly what they're comparing) -- but even if parts are true, it's misleading at best. In fact, some of it doesn't even seem to make sense. Let's look at real price lists from Apple and dell.

First we note that Dell doesn't seem to offer a 73 GB drive at all, so it's not entirely clear what they're comparing. The most likely possibility appears to be Apple's smallest option, a 73 GB SAS ADM ($300) to Dell's smallest, a 146 GB SAS ($349). While it's certainly true that the prices are comparable, it's also true that the Dell drive is twice as big.

For 300 GB SAS drives, the Apple site shows $650 while the Dell site shows $699. While Apple's price is lower, it's certainly not even close to $200 lower. To get a $200 price difference, it looks like they compared the full price of a 300 GB drive for the Dell to upgrade price for the Apple (i.e. the price difference for changing from the stock drive to the 300 GB drive).

For 1 TB hard drives, they have something of a point, but not a very good one. Apple's price for a 1 TB SATA drive is $450, while Dell's is $639. They fail to note, however, that Dell also lists a 1 TB SAS drive (an option not available for the XServe) for $679. Taking this into account, it looks a great deal as if Dell is simply doing their best to encourage their higher-end customers to use enterprise-class SAS drives by offering them at a purely nominal incremental cost over SATA drives.

The original article attempts to portray the situation as Apple offering prices that are at least as good as, and often better than the competition. In reality, there appears to be only one reasonable configuration where the Apple is likely to be competitive: the one using 300 GB SAS. At the low end, the Dell offers twice as big of a drive as the Apple for a purely nominal price difference. For lots of storage, the Apple offers only SATA drives where Dell offers SAS. If you're storing 1 TB of data (or more) the incremental cost of SAS is usually fully justified. There are undoubtedly exceptions, but they're not particularly common.

Here's some research I did quite recently (less than a month ago). Prices should still be about the same.

Bare minimum:
Dell PowerEdge T100 â" GBP 279
Quad Core Intel Xeon X3220 2.40Ghz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=305&l=en&oc=PE1T1001&s=bsd&sbc=%20server-poweredge-t100

4x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 82.76
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

2x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 163.30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 525.06

Medium setup:
Dell PowerEdge T300 - GBP 569
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X3363, 2.83GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XT3001&l=en&oc=SV1T300&rbc=SV1T300&s=bsd

6x 2GB DDR2 RAM - GBP 124.14
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

4x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 326.6
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 1019.74

Over the top:
Dell PowerEdge 1900 â" GBP 1359
2x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5345, 2x4MB Cache, 2.33GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XM2301&l=en&oc=SV11901&rbc=SV11901&s=bsd

8x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 165.52
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

6x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 589.9
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 2114.42

Here's some research I did quite recently (less than a month ago). Prices should still be about the same.

Bare minimum:
Dell PowerEdge T100 â" GBP 279
Quad Core Intel Xeon X3220 2.40Ghz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=305&l=en&oc=PE1T1001&s=bsd&sbc=%20server-poweredge-t100

4x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 82.76
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

2x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 163.30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 525.06

Medium setup:
Dell PowerEdge T300 - GBP 569
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X3363, 2.83GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XT3001&l=en&oc=SV1T300&rbc=SV1T300&s=bsd

6x 2GB DDR2 RAM - GBP 124.14
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

4x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 326.6
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 1019.74

Over the top:
Dell PowerEdge 1900 â" GBP 1359
2x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5345, 2x4MB Cache, 2.33GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XM2301&l=en&oc=SV11901&rbc=SV11901&s=bsd

8x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 165.52
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

6x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 589.9
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 2114.42

Here's some research I did quite recently (less than a month ago). Prices should still be about the same.

Bare minimum:
Dell PowerEdge T100 â" GBP 279
Quad Core Intel Xeon X3220 2.40Ghz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=305&l=en&oc=PE1T1001&s=bsd&sbc=%20server-poweredge-t100

4x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 82.76
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

2x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 163.30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 525.06

Medium setup:
Dell PowerEdge T300 - GBP 569
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X3363, 2.83GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XT3001&l=en&oc=SV1T300&rbc=SV1T300&s=bsd

6x 2GB DDR2 RAM - GBP 124.14
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

4x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 326.6
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 1019.74

Over the top:
Dell PowerEdge 1900 â" GBP 1359
2x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5345, 2x4MB Cache, 2.33GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XM2301&l=en&oc=SV11901&rbc=SV11901&s=bsd

8x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 165.52
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

6x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 589.9
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 2114.42

Home and Home Office does not have a 17"

Hunh? I am typing this on my Dell Studio 1737, which is available in the Dell home section. http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_17?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs There's also the Studio XPS 16, almost as big....

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

My GOD, there's three on one page.

And some more:

http://system76.com/index.php?cPath=28

These damned things are everywhere:

http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux-laptop-lctp.html

http://www.thelinuxlaptop.com/products_new.php

now I want a new machine and the 20" Dell is still perfect, but I can't reuse the iMac.

First off, because they are not so easy to reuse or re purpose I don't like these all-in-one computers, whether iMacs, Dell XPS One, or other all-in-one computers. To me they are a waste of resources. However you can still use the iMac. See this. It describes how you can use it with another Mac. For instance using a Firewire cable you can use it as a Firewire drive. MacOSX explains how you can use some iMacs as a second monitor. Check Can MacBook Pro laptop use IMAC monitor (easily)? as well.

Hope this helps.

Falcon

You must have been looking at the wrong Dell one then

Yea, Dell makes it harder to find a computer than Apple does. Does a buyer want a Home/Home Office system, a small to medium business system, or a large business system? Of course there are other choices. And they all come with different configurations and different prices. However when I looked there was 3 Mac laptop lines, MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. It's quite easy to see which one a buyer would want to buy. I just checked Dell again. Home and Home Office does not have a 17". Small Business has three, the lowest price one is $600 whereas the other two start at $3405, $700 more than the 17" MacBook Pro. Now for large business, there are 2, the Dell Precision M6400 with a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 17" UltraSharp(TM) WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display, 4.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, and 320GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Windows XP (which is being End of Lifed) cost $3,168. The MacBook Pro with the same configuration is $2800. What about the other one? Instead of XP it comes with Redhat Linux and cost $3090 for the same cpu, graphics, and hdd.

With the exception of the $600 laptop all of the laptops above cost more than the 17" MacBook Pro. You may say "but you looked at 17" laptops". Yes I did. One of the things I got it for, photography, the larger screen is better. For photography I also want a big hdd and high resolution display as well as a fast processor.

Falcon

You must have been looking at the wrong Dell one then

Yea, Dell makes it harder to find a computer than Apple does. Does a buyer want a Home/Home Office system, a small to medium business system, or a large business system? Of course there are other choices. And they all come with different configurations and different prices. However when I looked there was 3 Mac laptop lines, MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. It's quite easy to see which one a buyer would want to buy. I just checked Dell again. Home and Home Office does not have a 17". Small Business has three, the lowest price one is $600 whereas the other two start at $3405, $700 more than the 17" MacBook Pro. Now for large business, there are 2, the Dell Precision M6400 with a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 17" UltraSharp(TM) WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display, 4.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, and 320GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Windows XP (which is being End of Lifed) cost $3,168. The MacBook Pro with the same configuration is $2800. What about the other one? Instead of XP it comes with Redhat Linux and cost $3090 for the same cpu, graphics, and hdd.

With the exception of the $600 laptop all of the laptops above cost more than the 17" MacBook Pro. You may say "but you looked at 17" laptops". Yes I did. One of the things I got it for, photography, the larger screen is better. For photography I also want a big hdd and high resolution display as well as a fast processor.

Falcon

Rumour has it there's a non-Microsoft OS available for PCs, as well. In fact, I heard something about them having some kind of "year of the desktop" promotion and giving it out for free.

It's called Ubuntu. PCs with Ubuntu Desktop start at $249, which is less than the MSRP of Windows Vista Business OS alone.

My one and a half year old vaio SZ weighs less than that (about 3 pounds) and isn't all that thick.

The Dell Latitude E4200 is even smaller and lighter (2.2 pounds).

It's a nice laptop, but probably doesn't have the cool factor.

Currently in pocket browsing, it doesn't get any better than this:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A1325264

That's not true at all. Did you even check?

Why didn't you buy one of these

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/nseries_nb?s=bsd

The open-source n Series laptops feature select popular models from the LatitudeTM line available with a copy of the FreeDOSTM open-source operating system included in the box, ready to install. It is not a Microsoft operating system and is not qualified for Windows licensing use under any existing Microsoft Volume Licensing Program (OPEN, Enterprise, etc.) Customers interested in a Microsoft Windows solution should purchase a Dell laptop pre-loaded with Windows XP Professional.

Comes with FreeDos - no MS "tax" there.

linux is dangerous because attacking a single vendor is useless and because no single vendor needs to become 'huge' for linux to grow...

The home and SOHO market is looking for a off-the-shelf solution that "just works -" and strong vendor support when it doesn't.

That is a perfectly intelligible decision even when you are working on a much larger scale. It's why you chose Red Hat and Dell:

Dell and Red Hat Alliance

I started from http://www.dell.com/ and navigated to the Dell Mini 9 page again, and the Ubuntu systems appear for me:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs

I started from http://www.dell.com/ and navigated to the Dell Mini 9 page again, and the Ubuntu systems appear for me:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs