Dell Begins Selling Inspiron Mini 9

mocoloco writes "A week after the rumored date, Dell has begun selling their entry into the netbook/subnotebook/UMPC market, the Inspiron Mini 9. The base system for $349 includes Ubuntu 8.04 "with custom Dell interface", 512MB RAM, and a 4GB SSD. There are options with XP, one that includes an 8GB drive and a $40 instant savings, another with a 16GB drive and 1GB RAM that has a $55 instant savings. Curiously the Ubuntu systems are a pre-order at this point, to be shipped within 15 days. Also, no Red option yet."

Comments

Not in Canada

[VEGETA_GT]

Like normal its not on the Canadian site. Usually launches in the Us of product is on the same day in Canada but Dell dose not give us Canadians as many options for pc/laptops as they do to the US. HP also has a limited website for product configuration/product compared to the US. Considering how closely tied we are and how most company release Canada/us same time this would be in Canada to.

Re:Not in Canada

[KillerBob]

Like normal its not on the Canadian site. Usually launches in the Us of product is on the same day in Canada but Dell dose not give us Canadians as many options for pc/laptops as they do to the US. HP also has a limited website for product configuration/product compared to the US. Considering how closely tied we are and how most company release Canada/us same time this would be in Canada to.

Historically, the reason that Dell hasn't released products in Canada at the same time as the US is because they need to sell it in French as well as English. That means they have to translate the manuals, and that they need to provide French-language technical support. Doing otherwise would open themselves to a lawsuit for discrimination. They don't have French tech. support for *any* of their Linux offerings, which is what explains this one. That's what prevented the Insprion N-series Linux-based systems, as well as the XPS One from being released in Canada.

Re:Not in Canada

[vux984]

Good point. I probably wouldn't have thought of that even. It's just another reason why having mandatory second languages hurts companies and the consumer.

Lots of companies dealing in Canada don't have french support. Even many Canadian companies don't. Head over to to the West Coast (French is primarily spoken in Quebec eastwards, and dwindles the farther west you go.) By the time you reach Vancouver the odds of a small business having any one that speaks french above a pre-school level is pretty low.

Sure their products still have bilingual labels and instruction booklets and they'll happily ship them to Quebec, but that's about the extent of it, and its not expensive to have a translator write those for you. Point is, lots of Canadian websites and companies are english only.

Dell does have to provide french language manuals and labelling with their products which is a minor burden, but they do not have to provide french language support.

They offer french support not for regulatory reasons, but for competitive reasons, to appeal to french speaking Canadian, and also to make them eligible to sell to large Canadian enterprises and government entities that require bilingual support for practical reasons -- they want to buy computers from a company that provides support in the same languages that their employees speak.

Because Dell chooses to offer support in French, its in the interest of customer support simplicity to offer it consistently across all their products, not just some of them.

Re:Not in Canada

[dylan_-]

And, just because I know it'll come up: UK VAT is 17.5%. (528/100)*82.5=$435.60 so pre-tax we're paying just under $100 premium for absolutely nothing.

That's not how you actually calculate the price before VAT.

Think of the pre-tax price as 100% and then you add 17.5% to get 117.5% for price+VAT.

Another way of thinking of this is that you multiply your 100% by 1.175 to get 117.5%.

i.e. price_before_vat * 1.175 = price_including_vat

So, price_including_vat / 1.175 = price_before_vat

Therefore $528/1.175 = $449* is the correct pre-tax figure.

*(I'm sure the exchange rate isn't accurate enough for cents!)

Re:Not in Canada

[Virtual_Raider]

Many computer terms tend to be cut and pasted from English into foreign languages, especially if the word is exclusive to computing/technology developed. Something like 'Laptop' would have a foreign equivalent since it's a word made from existing words but something like 'Modem' and all the acronyms we know and love probably won't be any different.

Which only goes to show that common sense, logic and knowledge are not the same thing. The French are ferociously territorial with their language and the make up francophone terminology for everything they can. I guess it stems from the days that French was the Lingua Franca of the the world. Spanish speaking countries for instance are perfectly happy to say "software" (although there is a little-known native word coined, programalógica, everybody I've ever known that's heard it hates its guts). But the French word is 'logicielle'. There are heaps of other examples. So, no, it doesn't apply to French.

The value of Windows

[jmorris42]

I just love it! Go price out the same specs with Linux or Windows. The Windows machines are cheaper! Gotta love this, Linux is now more valuable than Windows!

Yes I know what is actually happening, Dell is keeping Microsoft happy. But lets all spin this as Windows is now the option nobody wants and see what happens. :)

Re:The value of Windows

[Shados]

They are. Having dealt with some OEM contracts, XP can end up as low as 5$ per license. Then add what companies pay Dell to install crapware, and you end up with negative cost (until people start developing crapware for Linux anyway)

Re:The value of Windows

[LWATCDR]

Yea people don't seem to realize that the crapletts are a source of cash. Dell probably makes a good $30 more installing Windows than Linux.
I wouldn't mind paying for Windows version if only I could use that copy of XP on a different machine.

Re:The value of Windows

[Whatanut]

Speaking as one that actually maintains our workstation image which covers a very large number of hardware configurations... I can say that it doesn't have to be a different image for every hardware configuration possible. It just has to have the right drivers for the hardware that's there. There are actually very few factors which dictate the real necessity for a separate image. Mainly multi-core vs. single core. Other than that. A single image is fair game.

Of course.. saying that. I will also say that Dell probably isn't dumb enough to use my system. It's a frickin' pain to keep the image updated for all that hardware. But I'd rather maintain one image (actually 12 internationally due to some random customizations for language and form factor) than 500.

Re:Discounts make the Windows=Linux in cost

[Thelasko]

The discounts on the two windows based versions equal out the cost of configuring the Linux version exactly the same. The resolution of the screen is 1024x600 making it slightly better than some competitors.

I don't know how you configured yours, but if you specify everything:
1GB DDR2 at 533MHz
16GB Solid State Drive
Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 capability
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam

Windows=$479
Ubuntu=$494

Re:Linux + Bigger HDD?

[nicolas.kassis]

You can upgrade everything on the linux option. Just select and configure.

Re:Custom Dell Interface?

[mocoloco]

I would guess it's a further customized version of Ubuntu netbook remix, which does use Gnome underneath everything.

Available in the UK

[Dan100]

It's on dell.co.uk. Only one model listed, the XP SP3 1 Gb ram 16 Gb SSD version, for £299 ($530 equivalent).

Review with video (Linux version)...

[feranick]

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/dell-inspiron-mini-9-linux.aspx

Shipping Date - GRRRRR

[superid]

I just ordered mine a few minutes ago and got my order confirmation. The anticipated shipping date is October 10Th !!!!!

If you plan on running Linux and use Flash...

[RemusX2]

I would recommend going with the middle option. With Linux flash support just passing at best, the lowest model just hits the minimum requirements as specified by Adobe. http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/productinfo/systemreqs/ The middle setup with the 1GB of RAM would make this a lot smoother.

$99 with another Dell machine

[Sockatume]

US only, alas, but they're practically giving them away if you order them at the same time as another Dell computer apparently. Pretty damn attractive, IMO.

Look at the keyboard before you buy!

[TheGreatGraySkwid]

I was actually considering one of these until I took a close look at the keyboard.

They moved the quote key.

Look at it! The '/" key has been relocated from right next to your pinky to somewhere weird! How the fuck am I supposed to touch type with that monstrosity? WTF!

Anyway, buyer beware.

Re:Look at the keyboard before you buy!

[sammyF70]

If you want something in that class with a decent keyboard, check out the Acer Aspire One.
Bought one for 329 euros a few days ago, and its keyboard is really good (I can type blind with it .. that's how good it is).
Only stupid design decision is to put the page up/page down keys directly above the cursor keys.

Apart from the Linpus distro which is a bit touchy when it gets to updating some libs, I don't regret the buy

Re:Look at the keyboard before you buy!

[sammyF70]

yep. Something similar crossed my mind when I read about it at the shop.

Thankfully, it's not as bad as its name. It's based on Fedora8, and uses a slightly modified xfce desktop. My biggest complaint with it is that stuff stops working if you install the wrong things from the fedora repos, but that might just be the Acer part of the pus.

Re:I rather have an eee

[Zymergy]

It is under the same bottom hatch as the RAM and HDD on the bottom of the Eee PC 1000H.
It had an AzureWave AW-NE766 Mini-PCIe card factory installed so just I removed the standard white and black antenna connectors and swapped cards with my Intel 4965AGN card. (because the Intel card has more features and is well-documented.) I just had no third antenna to connect to the center "gray" antenna connection on the Intel card, but it works fine.)
Here is an article of an EeePC 1000H it with the back cover off, etc... http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1474/2/asus_eee_pc_1000h_under_the_covers/index.html

Re:LED Display?

[MoonBuggy]

Just means that the LCD is backlit by LEDs rather than a cold cathode. It's a good thing, as I understand it - lower power, for one thing, but not any actual new display tech where the LEDs form the pixels as in OLED displays.

Re:I rather have an eee

[growse]

Just bought the 4965AGN. Found a big thread on the 901 (that I have) for replacing the wifi, everyone there is nuts about the Atheros chipset. The 4965 can do injection with aircrack so is good for warwalking :)

Not sure about the limitations

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought an Acer Aspire One netbook for my wife. It shipped with Windows XP Home and has many of the limits you mention: 1.6GHz Atom processor, 8.9-inch screen, and 1 GB of RAM. The hard drive, however, is 120 GB. I had read about the 80 GB limitation before, but either Acer got around it, or Microsoft has raised its ceiling.