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Dell's Ubuntu Ultrabook Now On Sale; Costs $50 More Than Windows Version
nk497 writes "Dell's 'Project Sputnik' laptop is now on sale. The XPS 13 Developer Edition comes with Ubuntu 12.04 pre-installed, and costs $1,549 — $50 more than the same model running Windows. The Ubuntu Ultrabook is the result of a skunkworks project to optimise the open-source OS to run on Dell projects, to create better laptops for developers. The idea of the project was to create a laptop for developers, based around 'the idea that developers are the kings of IT and set the agenda for web companies, who in turn, set the agenda for the whole industry,' Dell said." Reader skade88 points out a positive review from Ars Technica.
Thats because all the pre-loaded bloatware on win machines practically pays for the MS license.
'the idea that developers are the kings of IT and set the agenda for web companies, who in turn, set the agenda for the whole industry,'
So what they meant to say was: Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!
I am officially gone from
Are you frickin' kidding me? If I'm going to spend nearly 2 grand after taxes on a laptop, then I expect something better than what I can expect to get off the shelf at walmart for $400.
Or, it demonstrates that there isn't a lot of competition in the market for manufacturer-optimized linux-installed laptops, and that Dell is using the lack of competition in that market to extract rents. The idea that prices can be expected to closely mirror manufacturer costs is correct so far as the expected long-term result in a competitive market where no player is pricing based on influencing some other market, but its not necessarily true in the short run, or when there is little competition for a specific class of good, or where there are market participants that are using one product to draw people into another market.
Supporting Linux is not free.
Neither is windows of course, but the point is, they don't just preload it, they test it and they have to be able to tell customers exactly how things work and so forth.
This requires a special treatment.
Buying a computer without any operating system should be cheaper, buying a computer with an internally developed system should be more expensive.
Nope, don't see the problem here.
Dell did a lot of work to make sure drivers were solid. Its not cheap to make a laptop have a perfect out of the box experience.
So, if I buy the Linux version, I'm paying $50 to skip:
No.
You are not paying to skip anything.
From the sound of it, you are paying for a slightly customized Linux build with a lot of really well thought out features, like work "profiles" that load software tailored to certain kinds of work - the example given was Ruby developers.
Between Dell making sure the drivers work well with all of the hardware involved, and doing custom improvements over Linux tailored to developers you are not paying to skip anything - you are paying just $50 more to make sure you have a really good developer laptop.
This is the first non Mac laptop I've been interested in for years. This is a really, really smart move on the part of Dell and I can't help but think we'll see more things like it with PC makers looking to edge away from Microsoft somewhat now that MS is competing on hardware.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Actually, it might be the way to do it. Linux is out there, for free, in many forms, and people who see free as being a major point have already downloaded it. Whilst *we* know that the extra $50 is probably because they don't receive the same crap-ware subsidies, it'd be easy to pitch it as "it's $50 more because it's a better operating system". Sometimes charging more will automatically make something seem better...I can see it now..."Well sir, yes, you could have the Windows option, but for a measly $50 we can upgrade you to a more secure, stable operating system that comes with a huge library of free software and all future upgrades will be free, you'll save money the first time Microsoft brings out a new Windows."
Might very well work.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Everyone calm down. It's only $50. Imagine for a second if it were $50 cheaper than the Windows version... All of Dells usual idiot customers would show up, find the computer, do a search for the model... see this linux thing... "Save $50?!?! Hell yea!" and order it... Once it arrives and they boot it up and try to install their casino poker game... they call up Dell support... "What do you mean I can't install this?!?!"
Dell NEEDS to put a barrier between the average customer and a product that could cause them a lot of support costs. They need to do their very best to make sure that only people who know what they are buying get this laptop. Money is the easiest way to do that. If you don't want to pay the $50, just order the windows version and wipe it when it arrives. It's not that hard.
Dell did a lot of work to make sure drivers were solid. Its not cheap to make a laptop have a perfect out of the box experience.
Exactly. What people don't realize is that to provide a good experience for end users, putting Linux (any distro) on a computer entails more work for the manufacturer than just installing Windows and letting Microsoft sort out the hardware compatibility issues.
And I'm happy to pay $50 more for a Linux laptop than a Windows laptop. That's not a significant amount of money compared to the price of the machine, and it sends a clear message that we are willing to pay real money for a higher quality operating system. Finally, it dispels the myth that Linux users are cheapskates and self-filters those users who would buy a Linux laptop just to pirate Windows.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Not to mention--I assume Dell doesn't get any money for crapware on the Linux variant. (I have no idea how much money Dell gets for crapware, so I don't know if it is enough to totally offset the license for Windows, but it's a thought anyway)
Really? I've been using Linux on laptops for over 10 years and wasted many days trying to get things to work over time. Actually I've never seen power management work correctly under linux - not in combination with hardware graphics acceleration, wifi, and external displays. (Even my MacBook running OSX still gets confused and needs an occasional reboot...) Nowadays laptops dynamically switch from Ivy Bridge graphics to the NVidia card to save power... I'd be amazed if Linux can even use both (seems like I remember a lot of tinkering on a Thinkpad T400, one of the first dual-graphics solutions, to get that working), let alone switch dynamically.
I just ordered a Windows 7 laptop from Dell and plan to shrink the Windows partition a bit to make room for a linux install. If I could have added a preinstalled Linux multi-boot as a $50 option, or a $150 option, I certainly would have (it's a work machine).
I was going to add that I would pay the extra $50, but after looking at the machine, no. They're calling this a developer's laptop, but it only has 1366x768 resolution for that price?