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Dell Begins Selling Inspiron Mini 9

Posted by timothy on from the lightbulbs-in-round-rock dept.

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."

14 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Not in Canada by VEGETA_GT · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Not in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You should learn to proofread. You're giving us Canadians a bad name, therefore Dell won't sell their new products to us.

    2. Re:Not in Canada by Imagix · · Score: 5, Funny

      If we started you on the beer, you'd be so drunk so fast....

    3. Re:Not in Canada by KillerBob · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
    4. Re:Not in Canada by wattrlz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, it's weapons-grade beer. You've also stocked up most of this continent's oil too... hmmm.

    5. Re:Not in Canada by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

      French support for Dell shouldn't be much of an issue:

      "reboot your PC" - "rechargez votre PC"

      "reinstall the operating system" - "réinstallez le du système d'exploitation"

      I've got most of the work already done!

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. The value of Windows by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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. :)

    --
    Democrat delenda est
    1. Re:The value of Windows by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No kidding! Go fully-loaded with Linux and it costs $20 more! LOL. MS must be practically giving them XP.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:The value of Windows by Corrado · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yea, well couldn't you get the Windows one, refuse the EULA, and get $100 back? That sounds like the way to go to me. :)

      --
      KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
    3. Re:The value of Windows by Shados · · Score: 5, Informative

      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)

  3. $99! by Thelasko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you can wait until 6 a.m. Central tomorrow, Sept. 5, youâ(TM)ll be able to get a Mini for only $99 with the purchase of a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 laptop through 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 (U.S. only).

    yourblog found via endgadget.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  4. Review with video (Linux version)... by feranick · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  5. Re:I rather have an eee by Zymergy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Eee PC 1000H is a great system. I say GO GET ONE! If the Dell is better than the Eee 1000H, I have yet to read about it...

    I get about 7-8 hours of *actual* battery life with my 1000H in the field with the optional Asus AL24-1000 8800mAh battery for Eee PC 1000H (yes, I ebayed it straight from Taiwan/China). NOTE: The 1000H comes default with the Asus 6600mAh AL23-901 battery (about 5-6 hours *actual* runtime).
    I yanked the OEM 1GB SODIMM and replaced it with a PC-5300 2GB Corsair Value Ram SODIMM. (After updating to the latest Asus 1000H BIOS, it detects the full 2GB SODIMM, whereas before the BIOS update it only detected as 1GB, but still worked fine at 1GB...) It appears the Atom chipset memory limit at 1GB is artificially crippled initially.
    Also yanked the OEM Wi-Fi card and installed a much better Intel 4965AGN Wi-Fi card.
    I am about to replace the OEM Seagate 5,400RPM SATA 80GB HDD with a 64GB SATA SSD, but the run times named above were with the factory HDD and the Asus WinXP performance profiles set to "Auto". (Note that the Asus Eee 1000H has an 80 GB HDD with two 32GB partitions, the OS is ont he first one and the second one is not used. (but present as a D drive. Ans yes, you can install any notebook SATA drive, including the 320GB Seagate model, according to my buddy). Not sure why the 32GB WinXP partition, but it can be modified by pulling the drive and using Partition Magic (or whatever) to delete the other partition and change the size of the primary 32GB partition to fill the drive...

    As I understand it, Microsoft has deliberately restricted the systems that can be licensed with OEM WinXP by mandating that devices having screens smaller than something like 10" or 11", and no more than 1GB of RAM, a HDD no larger than 80GB, and a processor slower than 1.8GHz. (Someone feel free to correct me on the exact WinXP OEM Netbook licensing hardware restrictions, but I have read about there somewhere recently...)
    It is probable that the *nix versions of Dell's teeny PC can have larger/better hardware installed because *nix does not cripple the Atom-based PC's hardware restrictions.
    The REAL QUESTION is, will Dell do what Asus did and allow their BIOS to allow 2GB of RAM and different NICs and BT modules and HDD. (But I rather doubt that Dell will release a 8800mAh battery for their Atom-based Netbook... I would like to publicly state to Microsoft that, "I think that a hardware *restriction* policy for OEM Netbook WinXP is just a bunch of CRAP!" Maybe Linux will eat their lunch because of it... Too bad I have to have windows for my work software...

  6. Re:I rather have an eee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think you're mistaken abut the 1GB memory and the BIOS update. To expedite boot-up, the eee skips alot of the hardware checks that precede the OS initialization. You can restore them in the BIOS setup.

    My 2GB stick wasn't recognized as more than 1GB until I entered BIOS setup for the first time. I think that was the first opportunity the system got to say "Oh, look, new RAM."

    I assume that flashing the BIOS also forces a hardware check on restart, which would explain why it suddenly started working for you.