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Domain: dell.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to dell.com.
Comments · 2,769
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Re:Awesome! That means a less-expensive Linux mode
Check this wiki page.
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VeriSign is the dot in .comWe can boycott Verisign VeriSign is the dot in
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Re:It makes senseI have a $500 full size laptop, and I don't find it hard to carry around by any means. It's has a 14.1 inch screen and is pretty light and pretty thin. I agree that $500 can buy a lot of value these days. For example, Dell's $500 base Vostro 1400 (with Core 2 based Celeron) can do a lot more than an Eee PC. but neither one can just be shoved in your pocket as you leave the house. Both of them require some kind of backpack or shoulder bag to bring with you. So as far as I see it, the ultraportables, don't really offer much in terms of portability, because you can' just put them in your pocket, and a standard laptop lets you get your work done much easier. This is where I disagree with your opinion. When carrying your laptop around, the size/weight difference between an Eee PC and a 5-lb 14" laptop is huge. At 8.9" x 6.5" x 1.4" and approximately 2 lbs, the Eee PC is comparable in "footprint" to a DVD box (just a little longer). I think many users can just carry an Eee PC around in one hand. Unlike a 14" laptop, the Eee PC easily fits in a purse or messenger bag. It will even fit in some large jacket pockets. If you don't mind looking like an uber-dork, I bet it can be comfortably carried in a large fanny pack.
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Re:Repairing em'
And if you have a reimbursable service contract, Dell will reimburse you for the labour of any internal parts changed. http://warrantypartsdirect.dell.com/AP/program/T2100000.asp
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Re:Repairing em'According to Dell The Dell Warranty Parts Direct program is a service offered to Dell customers who wish to appoint a service provider (Third Party Maintainer) to maintain their Dell hardware. For Dell customers who have internal IT professional resources and in many cases troubleshoot and diagnose their own IT issues, Dell ProSupport for IT with Fast-Track Dispatch is available.
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Re:AdminwareDouble++ ditto. The crap/adminware that comes installed on the default image at work grinds my laptop to a halt. I don't know where to draw the line between useful (for business use) "adminware" and useless, bloated "crapware," but some "business" PCs have a "no trialware" feature or option.
Dell's Vostro line of cheap laptops and desktops for small business feature "no trialware":
- No Trialware.
Customers said they hated Trialware, so we took it away. Vostro systems come without annoying Trialware pre-installed. You only get the software you want.
- Fresh Start(TM)
Opt for a Fresh Start(TM) and your VAIO PC will undergo a system optimization service where specific VAIO applications, trial software and games are removed from your unit prior to shipment. Fresh Start(TM) safely scrubs your PC to free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power while maximizing overall system performance right from the start.
- No Trialware.
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Re:Superior Hardware?
This is from my recent order confirmation for a Latitude D830: 120GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM, 7200RPM,Latitude
You can check the availability of these drives on Dell's site. -
Re:Ubuntu Instead?3) Even if they didn't have "support" from microsoft, Dell was already handling some of the support for their XP machines, so it's not fair to say it's unsupported, just "unsupported by vendor" How many critical security bugs has Dell fixed lately? Well, that depends on how many bugs you count for Windows... http://dell.com/open/ Just in case you weren't trolling, the context made my point clear, I think.
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Re:Ubuntu Instead?How many critical security bugs has Dell fixed lately?
Well, that depends on how many bugs you count for Windows... http://dell.com/open/
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Re:Ubuntu Instead?If Dell is in the business of installing unsupported operating systems, why not instead redirect the customers to their Ubuntu offerings instead? Simply? End of Sale != End of Support. And Dell is selling past microsoft's end of sale date because they can make money doing so.
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downgrade not available for Vista Home Premium?
Microsoft created that capability only with Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium are unable to downgrade to Windows XP. So, basically this downgrade option will not be available with x86 machines that default to coming with Vista home Premium, and the other versions of Vista besides Business, and Ultimate. Hmmm. Seems like a large chunk of Dell laptops default to Vista; Home Premium http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs Am I right?
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Re:Ubuntu Instead?If Dell is in the business of installing unsupported operating systems, why not instead redirect the customers to their Ubuntu offerings instead?
Selling a computer with XP past the Microsoft cutoff date is pretty irresponsible. At least Ubuntu has community support, whereas XP will have no support? Is it really Dell's place to oversee microsoft's business decisions? Because no one wants Ubuntu, they want XP.
Sorry to be so blunt, but there it is. Dell sells Ubuntu, but it is still a niche, and suggesting that Dell just drop XP altogether to try and force people to use Ubuntu for... no good reason makes little sense.
In other news, I wonder if this will force Microsoft to continue to support WinXP. It's pretty well known that Dell has a lot of pull with Redmond -- it's said that their objections about the "No XP for YOU!" nonsense that Microsoft tried when Vista came out is one of the major reasons Microsoft backed down, wonder if this will change much. -
upgrades
When it is running Vista, there's no reason to upgrade of course.
if you're running Vista more than likely you got a new PC or you upgraded an old PC to be Vista capable.
Photoshop
Adobe recommends that if you're running Photoshop on Vista that you get CS3. And it cost $650 while Photoshop CS3 Extended cost $1000.
Upgrades to stuff like Photoshop would surely be cheaper than a decent new PC?
First, to install an upgrade for Photoshop, Photoshop already has to be installed, I believe, and as I state above Adobe recommends CS3 for Vista, so it may be foolish to install CS2 on a Vista PC. Next, a decent PC should cost less than $1000, even to run Photoshop CS3 on. The following are headless: An HP that beats Photoshop's minimum requirements is less than $900, though this one's on sale. A Dell that exceeds CS3's minimum configuration is less than $820.
However even photographers are likely to get software other than Photoshop, perhaps a design suite and an office suite. Add all the software cost up and they can easily exceed the hardware cost.
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Dell's take on Vista performanceDell has a chart showing the performance for various configurations. Under the Basic Windows Vista Experience - No Aero column (800MHz, 512MB), they show Great for...
Booting the Operating System, without running applications or games
Kind of says it all. -
Buy Small Business Notebooks! (Dell/HP)
If you go through the small business sections of many computer companies sites you will find that they offer a lot of the features they took away from the home market. They are also often better machines for around the same price (if you spec/quote carefully). This is similar to the glossy vs matte screen post from last week... Example Latitude D530 from Dell: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_d530
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A valid complaint
There exists hardware where the manufacturer refuses to disclose how it operates. The only purpose for this is to prevent it from working with open systems. The cure is simple. Don't buy it. Do not reward vendors for limiting your choices. In time they'll learn to stop including toxic stuff in their box.
Read the label. In this case, read the specifications for the stuff you buy. If the ingredients aren't on your preferred list of safe ingredients then just don't buy it. These days there are plenty of vendors eager to brag about how their platform will run any software you want to run including Dell, IBM and HP. In fact if your hardware won't work with an OS so flexible it runs on x86, alpha, sparc, arm, powerpc, hppa, ia64, mips and s390 then it must be truly broken. After all, Linux supports more hardware devices out of the box than any other.
If they won't tell you what's in the box and you buy it anyway then you're stuck. Fortunately the list of toxic ingredients and their sponsors get shorter every day.
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Basic analysis
Look, if anyone just does a basic analysis, you'll see that there's this circular process where the heavier operating system requires new hardware, forcing people to buy both to keep up with the times, which both them and the manufacturer want.
According to this basic analysis(pdf), debian Etch is an order of magnitude larger and more complex than Vista. And yet it doesn't require this "new hardware" you're speaking of.
In fact in addition to the x86-32 and x86-64 targets Vista aims for it also runs on alpha, sparc, arm, powerpc, hppa, ia64, mips and s390. From the toys to spacecraft, from webservers to 85.2% of the world's top 500 supercomputers it'll run on almost anything. That's engineering.
This will not end until they have a solid competitor, period, and that means the linux geeks have got to get off their high horse and make an easy, packaged, "buy your box from dell with it pre-loaded" version of it your grandma can use.
You have been able to buy PCs preloaded with linux from Walmart, Dell, IBM, HP and many others for several years.
Because, personally, i'm getting a little sick of getting these operating systems from Microsoft which I swear to God have code running several extra loops just to bog it down so that only the most bleeding edge (aka money I don't want to spend) boxes can handle it reasonably.
So switch. It's time. Ballmer says Vista is a work in progress. Gates says its replacement is a year out. Let's take their word for it. This is a great window of opportunity to justify looking at alternatives.
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Re:They're doing great
You're just talking complete and utter bullshit now. Windows has NATIVE SUPPORT for pretty much most of the devices in any Dell laptop.
If you're talking about Windows XP SP2, this is decidedly not true *AT ALL*.
I have a 3 years old Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop - so you would expect SP2 to recognize that hardware, right?
I had to download a shitload of drivers from the Dell website to make basically *anything* work at all: This includes the network cards (both wired and WiFi), bluetooth chipset support, SD cardreader support. Although the display worked with the default (unoptimized) drivers, I had to update those manually too if I wanted to play any 3D games. I think even the sound device (which is one of those default craptastic AC97 or whatever it's called things) needed to have its own driver installed. Now, I'm not even talking about the drivers for chipset/CPU support, such that frequency scaling and the like actually work. Sure Windows XP will work without those, but drain the battery about twice as fast as necessary.
You don't have to take my word for it either, you can go rigdht to Dells driver page for this laptop and look it up yourself.
So please stop talking bullshit about Windows supporting everything out of the box - that's about as far from the truth as it's possible to get. It is however true that nearly all manufacturers do supply XP drivers for most hardware - which is not always the case for Linux. -
Re:PossiblyI would say it's quite possible, but until Ubuntu got something like widespread availability as a pre-installed on computers for purchase, then it won't matter how ready it is because few people in the masses will have any experience. http://www.dell.com/ubuntu Seems Dell believes it's ready for the desktop, and from the models available they think it's ready for the laptop too. It's ready, Dell said so.
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Re:Possibly
Wait!!! They still offer XP??? Where?
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/winxp_inspnnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs -
Re:They're doing great
But there's no way he could have gotten the wireless working on his own (even in the 8.04 beta, I still had to download and install drivers, then muck around with
And he shouldn't be expected to.
Installing operating systems is for 1.) technicians, who can handle it and 2.) hobbyists, who asked for it. The idea that Ubuntu is going to gain a bunch of market share because random plumbers, school teachers, and bartenders will decide to download the install CD and install a new OS themselves on their current computers is absurd. Most users buy computers with the operating system already installed. If you want to do that for Ubuntu, try either System76 or Dell.
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Re:Bigger issue than glareNot inherently, but they typically do. You don't "add" or "remove" pixels to make a widescreen. They are different objects! So the difference is in what you choose to compare them against.
As an example: my old 4:3 19" is 1280x1024 = that's 1.3 million pixels. A Dell widescreen 19" is 1440x900, which is 1.29 million pixels. Pretty close, but you lose 100 pixels on the bottom.
So what about gaining the horizontal pixels? It usually doesn't matter. Applications are more designed to scroll vertically than horizontally. My wife likes to maximize web browsers on our 24" widescreen monitor - all it does is create lots of useless blank space on the edges. What's the last website you saw that actually uses all that space? I can barely find one, and when I do, it makes all the paragraphs one line long - hard to read.
Now, I use that monitor for music editing work which scrolls horizontally, where it can make use of all that space... but most people don't.
Most laptops are the same. You just don't get the same amount of vertical pixels out of it than you used to. And it's getting harder to find 3:2 screens if you need that really useful vertical resolution.
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Dell -- Latitude D830 -- Small business
With any company I always recommend dealing with their small business department. You get better warranties and less of the cheapo skimp hardware (like gloss screens) than you do through retail or home user departments. Check out the D830 from Dell. Default it comes with a 1680x1050 screen or for $150 you can bump it up to a 1920x1200. D830
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Re:Here we go again, eh?
Good luck finding a choice of local bookkeepers or tax preparers who accept linux anything.
I know I saw some standard protocols -- and also the ability to export to some other format.
If linux becomes an OEM pre-installed option in any significant way
*cough* DELL *cough*
Or do you mean "not an option" for the practical reasons you've mentioned?
Really? I know almost nobody who ever had to upgrade XP Home to XP Pro
And on XP, Home was actually decent, though not great. Vista, however, has something like five different versions. Home Basic is pretty crippled.
How exactly would that ever motivate Linux ports?
By allowing gamers to move to Linux while running existing games, thus providing a viable install base. Once that's done, developers are going to want to either pay Cedega to port them, or do it themselves, because Cedega can never be as reliable or as fast as a native port.
nowhere near as polished as itunes
It's close enough, and more polished in a few ways.
doesn't support the itms
Apple's fault. It does, however, support last.fm directly, and there are other stores out there.
doesn't support syncing contacts / photos / calendar
I'm just going to continue ignoring that -- it's way beyond what a music app should be responsible for. Maybe if it spawned the actual contacts/photos/calendar apps to handle that...
And sure linux will recognize your digital camera and let you get your pictures off, and there are endless tools to edit images... but its nowhere near as slick and integrated as OS X or even Windows
Care to be specific?
im/video chat
Kopete will do webcams, and Skype has a native version.
touching up their photos (even if its just red eye reduction and resizing/cropping
All the more reason for them to not need Photoshop.
That is one of the big linux hurdles: one hase to constantly search for the foss alternative and take ownership of the problem of finding out how to make it work, the instructions and disks in the box don't work.
Which is why I tend to assume that the initial setup is the hardest part. Borrow a geek for that.
And it is much easier now -- a quick Google search will usually turn up a tutorial.
I think linux itself is ready for the desktop, but the rest of the world isn't ready for linux to be there. The tipping point comes when the rest of hardware/software world recognizes Linux and supports it.
Dell has. Asus has. That's starting to happen...
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Dell had one already... sorta
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_x1?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
Latitude X1, which was pretty portable to begin with. Not quite to the "subnotebook" or "ultraportable" crowd, it was missing an optical drive and had a 12.1" screen. Sorta like a hybrid between the Eee and a standard Laptop. -
Re:I can tell most of you don't walk to work...
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DYCWTG1&s=dhs
3.97 lbs and FULLY functional
Just because you don't have a good laptop for walking.
Doesn't mean some of us don't. -
Ron Garriques/Motorola Connection?
Many former and current Motorolans will wonder if this has anything to do with Ron Garriques joining Dell. Maybe he'll run Dell into the ground just like he did at Motorola.
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Re:If only...Unfortunately, the vast majority of Windows PCs (including pretty much every laptop ever made) also use these "inferior" screens, and nobody's tried to sue Dell yet. The majority of Windows PCs are non-specific about the superiority or inferiority of their screens. Dell doesn't lie about it. No fraud, no suit. I just had to check the specs of Dell's (forgotten?) iMac competitor: the XPS One. From the specs:
- Display
Large Size ( 20" )
Widescreen
High Definition: WSXGA (1680x1050) resolution at 16.7 million colors
- Viewing Angle (up to 80 degrees)
Fast pixel-response rate (5ms typical for fast motion)
OTOH, Dell doesn't potentially mislead buyers by comparing the quality of the XPS One's display to their 8-bit displays. Apple uses the same description ("Millions of colors at all resolutions") for both the 20" 6-bit and 24" 8-bit iMacs on their specs page. Apple's "iMac - Technology - Glossy widescreen display" page seems to say that the only difference between the two displays is their size and resolution:
- How do the displays compare? The 20-inch widescreen iMac offers a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels on its flat-panel LCD screen 36 percent more than the previous 17-inch iMac. The 24-inch iMac offers a panoramic resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels 30 percent more screen real estate than the 20-inch model.
Rich, vivid color.
No matter what you like to do on your computer watch movies, edit photos, play games, even just view a screen saver its going to look stunning on an iMac.
- Display
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Re:If only...
Your statement is not accurate. I have a Dell 2707 WFP (that uses a Samsung panel used in Samsung 27" models too). I can assure you after looking at a bunch of monitors, you can tell the difference. As seen in the Anandtech review the panel used is S-PVA. From use I can say that while the colors might not be good enough for a professional photographer who would spend $6,000 on a monitor, it IS great for my uses and the colors look excellent from all angles.
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Re:dual screen...
Not exactly what you're looking for, but:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs -
Re:I wish, I wish
You can also get Dells preloaded with Ubuntu (including in Canada, now!), just search their site for "ubuntu": http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
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Re:I wish, I wishI wish, I wish I was a fish. And that we could buy computers without an OS if we chose to. Sure you can. You can buy Dell n Series computers without an OS installed, but with an obligatory copy of FreeDOS (not preinstalled). You're not really expected to install FreeDOS, but for some reason (maybe legal or contractual) Dell doesn't want to sell PCs without a bundled OS, so they bundle (but don't install) an OS that you're not expected to install.
- Inspiron n Series desktops for home and home office
- Vostro and OptiPlex n Series desktops for business
- Latitude n Series laptops for business
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Re:I wish, I wishI wish, I wish I was a fish. And that we could buy computers without an OS if we chose to. Sure you can. You can buy Dell n Series computers without an OS installed, but with an obligatory copy of FreeDOS (not preinstalled). You're not really expected to install FreeDOS, but for some reason (maybe legal or contractual) Dell doesn't want to sell PCs without a bundled OS, so they bundle (but don't install) an OS that you're not expected to install.
- Inspiron n Series desktops for home and home office
- Vostro and OptiPlex n Series desktops for business
- Latitude n Series laptops for business
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Re:I wish, I wishI wish, I wish I was a fish. And that we could buy computers without an OS if we chose to. Sure you can. You can buy Dell n Series computers without an OS installed, but with an obligatory copy of FreeDOS (not preinstalled). You're not really expected to install FreeDOS, but for some reason (maybe legal or contractual) Dell doesn't want to sell PCs without a bundled OS, so they bundle (but don't install) an OS that you're not expected to install.
- Inspiron n Series desktops for home and home office
- Vostro and OptiPlex n Series desktops for business
- Latitude n Series laptops for business
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Re:Dell has this optionI saw that Dell has a small business line of PC's that they claim to ship free of all that bloatware. I dont remember the name of that product line. But I liked the fact that you didnt have to select it as an option, it was a standard feature. It's their super-cheap Vostro line of desktops and laptops for small business, which were introduced Summer 2007. Vostro hardware is nearly identical to the new Inspiron desktops and laptops introduced at the same time, but are "business black" instead of silver.
The press release for the Vostro introduction described the "no trialware" feature:
- "The Vostro branded products feature no trialware and simple to use tools that address top-of-mind problems such as data back-up, PC performance and health, and specialized networking support for customers without dedicated IT staff."
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Re:Nay!
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. -
Re:Nay!
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. -
Re:Nay!
You certainly can't compare the combo-drive mac mini. Is it really a CDRW DVD machine? Isn't that completely obsolete?
For my purposes: yes. For people like my parents: No.
They were just about to get on the CD writing bandwagon to make mp3 CDs... but now they have flash mp3 players, and flash drives, so they don't need them. I think they've burned like 2 CD's. Hell, other than making bootable OS CDs **I** don't burn many CDs or DVDs; I prefer flash drives and external hard drives.
That said, yeah I think Apple should refresh the mini specs. The price diff to a dvdrw is what? maybe 3$.
The cheapest Dell doesn't even sell a 1.83GHz Dual core processor.
Au contraire...
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWFA1&s=dhs
or
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=brcw2cz&s=bsd
Quite correct. The cheapest Dells I can find feature a 1.6Ghz CELERON, with options to UPGRADE to a 1.8 or 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo.
You need to compare something other than the cheapest mac mini. It's antiquated. You can't find a PC that incapable and slow, regardless of Bluetooth and wifi.
Look again. The Vostro above features:
1.6GHz Celeron
512MB RAM
DVD-ROM - that's right NOT EVEN a combo drive!!
80GB Hard drive
You were saying?
Granted its 299 not 599. But then its 10x the size, half the ram, not even a combo drive, no wifi, no gigabit, no firewire, no bluetooth,
Also ditch the Bluetooth and Wifi in a desktop. It's just not needed and can be tossed in with a USB key. It just makes for a stupid comparison. Of course no PC manufacturer offers it in an OEM package. It's pointless.
Really? I won't buy a desktop without wifi anymore. USB dongles are a pain in the ass, and sometimes my PC isn't in a place where a cable is convenient; enable wifi, and boom I'm up and running.
The people buying macs care about style, they care about cable clutter - the fewer the better. wifi also means they can put it anywhere... I know people with a mac mini on their kitchen counter. All they had to do was set up a screen and 2 power cords. Keyboard and mouse (and the mini for that matter) are in a drawer. When they want to use it they pull the kb/mouse out of the drawer. Try doing that with a cheapie Dell with anywhere near the same level of elegance.
Some people care about THAT stuff more than they care about a couple extra GHz or writing DVDs. Hell; I'd buy a mac mini for that purpose or as a 2ndary PC for the house. I don't even need a dvdrw in it; I have other machines that can burn dvds that odd time it comes up. -
Re:Nay!
You certainly can't compare the combo-drive mac mini. Is it really a CDRW DVD machine? Isn't that completely obsolete?
For my purposes: yes. For people like my parents: No.
They were just about to get on the CD writing bandwagon to make mp3 CDs... but now they have flash mp3 players, and flash drives, so they don't need them. I think they've burned like 2 CD's. Hell, other than making bootable OS CDs **I** don't burn many CDs or DVDs; I prefer flash drives and external hard drives.
That said, yeah I think Apple should refresh the mini specs. The price diff to a dvdrw is what? maybe 3$.
The cheapest Dell doesn't even sell a 1.83GHz Dual core processor.
Au contraire...
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWFA1&s=dhs
or
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=brcw2cz&s=bsd
Quite correct. The cheapest Dells I can find feature a 1.6Ghz CELERON, with options to UPGRADE to a 1.8 or 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo.
You need to compare something other than the cheapest mac mini. It's antiquated. You can't find a PC that incapable and slow, regardless of Bluetooth and wifi.
Look again. The Vostro above features:
1.6GHz Celeron
512MB RAM
DVD-ROM - that's right NOT EVEN a combo drive!!
80GB Hard drive
You were saying?
Granted its 299 not 599. But then its 10x the size, half the ram, not even a combo drive, no wifi, no gigabit, no firewire, no bluetooth,
Also ditch the Bluetooth and Wifi in a desktop. It's just not needed and can be tossed in with a USB key. It just makes for a stupid comparison. Of course no PC manufacturer offers it in an OEM package. It's pointless.
Really? I won't buy a desktop without wifi anymore. USB dongles are a pain in the ass, and sometimes my PC isn't in a place where a cable is convenient; enable wifi, and boom I'm up and running.
The people buying macs care about style, they care about cable clutter - the fewer the better. wifi also means they can put it anywhere... I know people with a mac mini on their kitchen counter. All they had to do was set up a screen and 2 power cords. Keyboard and mouse (and the mini for that matter) are in a drawer. When they want to use it they pull the kb/mouse out of the drawer. Try doing that with a cheapie Dell with anywhere near the same level of elegance.
Some people care about THAT stuff more than they care about a couple extra GHz or writing DVDs. Hell; I'd buy a mac mini for that purpose or as a 2ndary PC for the house. I don't even need a dvdrw in it; I have other machines that can burn dvds that odd time it comes up. -
Re:Nay!"A lot better? Give me a break. I challenge you to put together a Dell for $650 (or $750 including monitor, since with a lot of their budget PCs you can't unbundle it) that matches the mini's specs. I challenge you."
I accept.
let's compare shall we. http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/desktops_good?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs
vs
http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiastore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=7B723681&node=home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini for $50AUD more then the mini superdrive, the dell gives you an extra gig of ram, 170gigs of extra hd space, a 256meg 3d card, 20" wide screen lcd and a 2.25ghz 2m cache core 2 duo.
that's a much much faster machine for the same price point.
lets look at the base line mini "combodrive". for $50 less dell gives twice the hd space and a 19" monitor
so all you are paying for is the wank factor, thank you very much. please stop spouting nonsense about mac's competing with pc's on price.
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Re:Nay!
Typo: The Inspiron price is $1,099
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1720?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&~oid=us~en~29~inspnnb_1720_anav2~~ -
Re:Look how quickly I adjust tooYou went for the format that's out of most people's price range, that's unlikely to be in people's price range for a while, and which had less features (and thus less clear advantages over DVD) than HD DVD. In practice, I suspect you've doomed HD media to a niche, while the vast majority stick with DVD for movies they want to own, and PPV and the various download services for content they want to see in HD. You keep telling yourself that. The price jump is a minor glitch given that there is no longer a war going on and they aren't dumping them below cost. Do you think HD-DVD player prices would have stayed low if BluRay had thrown in the towel? They would have risen more. By Christmas they will be down to $200. Why is this so hard for people to understand? Why is it the same people who were convinced that HD-DVD was going to take off now suddenly think that download media is going to be the thing? Uh, $200 is a LOT to play DVDs, granted really nice DVDs, but the to vast majority of people, thats all it is. A fancy, more expensive DVD. When its down to $150 for medium quality unit, thats when people are going to start adopting HD media.
As for download media, I don't think that will be able to "take off" until off-the-shelf computers start coming with more memory as a standard feature. Storage is cheap, obscenely so, but until a basic off the shelf computer comes with more than this that's all your average user will have for memory. 2GB. In other words, not enough for more than one movie. If that. A lot of (non-computer savvy) people don't realize how much memory things like movies use. Most people don't have more than, say, a few gigs of memory, not because its too expensive, but because that's what their computer came with. They don't realize that they need more (if they want to store music,movies, etc. on their computer). I saw the same thing in a discussion about computer graphics the other day. Its not that people are choosing to use outdated equipment. They just don't know they need more. They assume their computer comes with everything they need, and they get angry when they find out it doesn't(like trying to use intergrated graphics,which are still standard issue on most pcs, to play a graphic intensive game, or when their computer doesn't have enough memory. -
Re:Ok, this line says it all
$1800 really isn't all that much for a laptop. While the low end ones are reasonably cheap, once you get fancy the price shoots up amazingly fast. Even boring old Dell laptops get well over that.
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Re:Was that a blog, or an ad for Sony?
"hey argue that by forcing manufacturers, who already have thin margins to cut their margins even further by creating cheaper and cheaper commodity hardware, it will limit the likelihood of manufacturers investing in high-margin, high-value, cutting edge hardware- and will therefore limit the development of said hardware."
You can go to Walmart and buy a complete PC system with LCD for $400, even less online. Has that stopped manufactures from making faster processors and video cards? Of course not, and neither will cheap laptops.
The Eee PC is no threat to Sony or any other major manufacture. It has no dvd-rw drive, no hard drive, and the cheapest $300 model only has 2gb of storage. 2gb! Most laptops have more ram than this has total storage! It costs $500 to get a Eee with only 8gb, and for that price you could buy a full-sized 1.86ghz Inspiron 1525 from Dell or Walmart has several laptops betweeen $400 and $500
Saying the Eee PC threatens laptop manufactures is like saying motorcycles threaten SUV sales. If they really want to be competitive, Sony should make a Eee PC clone. I'm sure there's money to be made selling a 7" LCD, 2gb storage and 900mhz processor for $300.
Sony's argument is BS. I would think they'd be more worried about the full-sized $500 laptops competing with their $1,500 notebooks considering they're much closer in specs. -
Re:end of the internet
Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but from a pure time wasting and proactive security standpoint, it makes perfect sense. I can't think of one site that uses flash for something that is actually productive or necessary to most core business functions. Sounds like an easy way to block the myriad video sites that pop up left and right.
Been to http://www.dell.com/ lately? Or any other vendor, for that matter? Sure, the site can be done without flash... but in a business where people make buying decisions based on how something is presented, with bonus points for being "sexy", having something like well-designed and well-implemented Flash applet on the website can make a *huge* difference to your bottom line.
You're making the mistake of thinking like an engineer, not a consumer. -
Re:Mac miniWe colocate and run dedicated servers on Mac Minis. Electricity prices in London data centres are crippling. In a standard 2kW rack we get 55 Mac Minis - 37W each. The guys in the rack next door have 6 Dell 1950s. They look at us enviously and mumble about the cost of Windows server licences. Nice gimmick, but guys that actually use the features of Dell 1950s wouldn't be jealous of a bunch of home computers with no Linux support from Apple, non-ECC memory, home-grade CPU/chipset, slow hard drive (no RAID or SAS), no hot-plugging (hard drives, power supplies), and no supported management hardware/software. For guys that actually use the performance of Dell's 1950's hardware (dual Quad-core Low Voltage Xeons are an option), then the performance per watt far exceeds a rack of Mac Minis.
Also, these Dells can be configured with Linux (with support) or ordered with no OS installed (install Linux yourself). Don't know why those guys would be mumbling about the cost of Windows.
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Re:Wrong POV.Now, what would cause problems for Microsoft would be a Google distro marketed to the Dells and HPs and Lenovos of the world, and also on store shelves. But we already have a marketing department, and they seem to have been at least somewhat successful. Are you saying they're missing something important that only Google has?
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And apparently 512 MB RAM is "Vista Capable"
I bought a computer with a "Vista Capable" sticker, which had only 512 MB of RAM. Now, according to Dell, such a configuration is "Great for... Booting the Operating System, without running applications or games".
Which, incidentally, was pretty much all I could do.
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Re:OP is wrong
Really?
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&dgc=EM&cid=21690&lid=511380
I sure hope they use what's put in front of them.
Posted from my Ubuntu workstation PC at work. -
Re:King's New Robes Effect
... and then they'd ask me how much it was... and when I told them it was free, they'd be disappointed!
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid
Then tell them it's $250 with a years support package, but because you're a licenced distributor, you can install it for nothing, just for them. Then it has percieved value, it's a good deal and they're getting it because they know an insider! While people don't want to get something of no value, they love getting something of value for nothing and they love "knowing the right person". Either that or tell them the price of a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled, which is not nothing and definitely has credibility as "value".
