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Dell Offers Ubuntu Option With Alienware Gaming Desktop

Posted by timothy on from the year-of-the-linux-sorta-console-looking-thing dept.

dartttt writes "Dell has launched a new Ubuntu gaming desktop (first ever?) . Alienware customers can now choose either Windows or Ubuntu when buying a new X51. Ubuntu option is initially available to U.S. customers only and the price starts from $599." Also in Ubuntu news: Canonical announced on Friday the final beta release of Ubuntu 13.04, aka Raring Ringtail (the main release, as well as the growing flock of other *buntus).

32 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. But where are the games? by invictusvoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    where are the Linux games ?

    1. Re:But where are the games? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/

    2. Re:But where are the games? by Mike+Frett · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have about 30, most all of them are compatible or will be once Valve releases HL2. And we already know any new games Valve releases will be Linux native. There are also dozens of sweet Kickstarter projects about to be released also. And lgdb.org has a huge database of games.

      I think what you are really saying is "Where are the Graphically Superior Games". Well, IMO Graphics don't make the game, but they are nice to look at. The solution is to stop buying Windows only games and check the compatibility before you buy a game so you're not stuck.

    3. Re:But where are the games? by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

      This machine will run Tux Racer like you wouldn't believe!

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      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    4. Re:But where are the games? by Svartalf · · Score: 2

      Not to mention there's a bit of a big push to get games out- everyone on Steam's at least passingly interested in Linux versions of their titles now.

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    5. Re:But where are the games? by Svartalf · · Score: 2

      Heh... DRM's not a mandatory thing for Steam use. It's another lego block in the API. At least a good part of the Indie titles don't use that lego block. Personally, I'm not for DRM, mind...but I do hope you're not ever using a gaming console, because by definition, you're using DRMed titles- PERIOD.

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  2. That's weird. by Seumas · · Score: 4, Informative

    You have the inquisitiveness and good taste to use linux, but you have a low bar for standards, shitty taste, and willingness to overpay for Alienware?!

    I mean, I'm glad to see linux anywhere it can get to, but that's such a bizarre pairing.

    1. Re:That's weird. by Verunks · · Score: 5, Insightful

      if you want a gaming laptop there aren't many other choices, and they are all priced around the same

    2. Re:That's weird. by crafty.munchkin · · Score: 2

      $599 in the US. Base model is $1299 in Australia, for a PC spec which could be bought for $800 without the glowing Alien head.

      Yeah, I can see that working out well for them...

      --
      ... wait, what?
    3. Re:That's weird. by Seumas · · Score: 2

      I haven't followed them much, since the brand was acquired by Dell, but yes - they're one of those Northwest Falcon / Doghouse Systems type of companies that build you a gaming rig for a lot more than you could build one yourself (between 150% and 200% of what you could put it together yourself for). That isn't to say it's a total rip off, but you could reasonably also find someone to build it to your specs for you if you don't want to do the dirty work and still come out a lot cheaper than paying the "there's a little alien logo on my ridiculous looking chassis" fee.

      As someone else mentioned, they're one of the only games in town if you want a "real" gaming laptop (still an oxymoron if you ask me) -- but at a ridiculous price point.

      Anyway, I just took a look and even their high end doesn't seem very high-end, anymore. Alienware used to put out some pretty beefy systems (but not beefy enough for the insane markup). All I can find under the Alienware brand for desktop gaming PCs is an "X51" with 16gb RAM, a 1.5gb GTX 660, a i7-3770, and a 256gb SSD. Throw in a chassis, mobo, and decent PSU and you could do this for about $1,000 or less retail. Dell can do it for $1,500 (ooh, but that includes Valve's Steam client - pre-installed!).

      Oh, actually, they seem to have a hexacore lineup called "Aurora", too . . . It's pretty much the same thing, but with an i7-3820 and dual 680s . . . for $2,700!

    4. Re:That's weird. by Seumas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Though, if you want a gaming laptop, someone will hopefully intervene and nudge you away from it as the name is kind of oxymoronic. Even in 2013, I believe people need to be disabused of the idea that (short of spending $5,000 on an insane system every year for a 12lb crazy ass laptop) there is really such a thing as a "gaming" laptop.

      Except maybe for linux, because on linux the majority of ported games tend to be . . . a little more trivial (sorry, I tried to come up with a less dismissive word).

    5. Re:That's weird. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I bought an alienware abut 4 years ago. Cost me about 3,000 and will still play everything that comes out just fine (though no longer at max settings). At the time I was working as a merchant marine so it was great to have something to take on the ship with me. Even now I use it as a backup/lan party machine rather than taking my whole desktop setup. However little sense these machines may make for most people they do serve a useful purpose in the market.

    6. Re:That's weird. by Patch86 · · Score: 2

      What actually is a "gaming laptop"? One with an i7 processor and a non-Intel video card? That's not that difficult to buy. A quick search of Amazon shows me 96 results for just that. 31 of them have a 17" or greater screen size too. Pretty much every PC manufacturer is represented there.

      No judgement on price though; the ones I can see look fair enough at £500-£700.

    7. Re:That's weird. by Entropius · · Score: 2

      They've not been that way for a long time, if you get ones that have x60-class (560, 660, etc.,) GPU's rather than the 580/680 class ones. They may not run all your games on ultra at 1920x1080 with FSAA on, but is that really that big of a deal?

      I'm sitting here with one in my lap right now, actually. It's barely warm, not that heavy, not that big (it's small enough that I plug it into a real monitor when I'm at home), the battery lasts a long time, and it still runs games quite well. No, it's not a beast with multiple high-end GPU's in SLI, but I can't afford one of those anyway.

  3. Re:Comical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not comical. Revealing desperate for any traction at all, sure. Dell clearly thinks that branch of product can't do well enough on Win alone, and "linux gaming" has been making headlines lately, so what the heck.

    Ubuntu itself doesn't matter per se. They'd go with Ubuntu because they'd want the closest to 'safe well-supported mainstream brand' they could find. But it's no turn-off to anyone who'd prefer another distro because they'll load it easy enough, and the 'ubuntu inside' assures them it's a high end laptop that /definitely/ has a full set sorted of linux drivers for a change.

  4. no Windows fee, so costs more by dltaylor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd

    http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=DPDOXP4u&model_id=alienware-x51&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

    Ubuntu box gets lower spec' and fewer accessories:

    Smaller hard drive 1 vs 2; no mouse or keyboard, ...

    They're both 1049?

    1. Re:no Windows fee, so costs more by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      Sort of. If you look closely, you see that the Ubuntu is $100 cheaper list-price but has a $100 discount there. The Windows one has a $200 discount. So the final price comes to the same for each, $1049. The only hardware difference I see is the hard drive: Windows has 2TB, Ubuntu has 1TB. Which explains why the latter is $100 cheaper: Not license fee difference, but just that it has a cheaper drive. I'm not sure why this is, but perhaps Microsoft specifies 2TB as a minimum for a Windows 8 desktop. Just to speculate.

      The whole thing might be just a bargaining ploy - give the appearance of seriously considering selling Linux OEM, and Microsoft may offer cheaper OEM licenses in order to reduce the appeal.

    2. Re:no Windows fee, so costs more by johnkoer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or Dell, like any other company, is trying to make a profit and sees an opportunity to get some additional markup. You could also speculate that if they make the Ubuntu boxes cheaper, more people would buy them not knowing what Ubuntu is. Then when they try and install their copy of The Sims they will call Dell and complain. This raises their support costs for the computers and thus has to be included in the base sale price.

      --
      Johnkoerner.com
  5. Why so negative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm constantly surprised at how some people can only see the bad side to any news.

    Finally we're seeing mainstream acceptance of Linux as an alternative to Windows and yet people still complain. This is a great first step, a major manufacturer is putting Linux onto machines designed to be sold to the home in a competitive way. It can only lead to good things, more game manufacturers taking notice and developing their games for the platform, which in turn will make the hardware vendors made decent drivers.

    And yet all some people can focus on is the fact that this machine doesn't suit their own personal special snowflake situation. the mind boggles!

  6. Dell still doesn't get it by loufoque · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why is Dell making stupid Linux offerings?
    Either they're providing Linux on shit hardware or on gaming hardware. Neither is the right target.

    People want Linux on good hardware, but not for games, they want it for work.
    And they want it to be part of the main offerings, not hidden on some special section of the website.

    1. Re:Dell still doesn't get it by ISoldat53 · · Score: 2

      Marketing is playing buzzword bingo again.

    2. Re:Dell still doesn't get it by BenJury · · Score: 2

      You might, but I'd like it on a decent gaming machine which would force the hardware companies to provide decent drivers. And guess what, all the kids who buy a Linux gaming machine will grow up using Linux along with things like Open Office, so when they get to the work place the Microsoft stranglehold will be loosened.

      Though you're right, I'd like the offering to be more prominent (and available in the UK!) but its still a good start and not to be scoffed at.

      --
      Blatant Advert: Android Apps!
  7. Modern Gaming is about Linux by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    And most of the commercial Linux games are pretty expensive. That's going to be a tough sell as a Steam box.

    Your talking about legacy gaming, Modern gaming is cross-platform, with Windows being a shrinking platform [Microsoft treating the the Windows Desktop as an xbox ugly stepchild; its gamers like its prison bitches DRM victims; child only games], with Linux/Android being a massive groth industry [and a refuge for Valves business model :)]

  8. Emulators and not-an-emulators by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nearly every game for NES, Super NES, or Sega Genesis works in emulation on Linux. If you have a Retrode, you can turn your Super NES or Genesis cartridges into ROM files and play them that way, or you can use a Kazzo to dump NES cartridges.

    And if you're not into emulation, you can try Wine, which is not an emulator. Plenty of PC games made for Windows work in Linux through Wine. Or you can try a load of amateur games made with SDL or Pygame.

  9. PS3-class gaming with no GPU by tepples · · Score: 2

    Even in 2013, I believe people need to be disabused of the idea that (short of spending $5,000 on an insane system every year for a 12lb crazy ass laptop) there is really such a thing as a "gaming" laptop.

    You might not be able to get PS4- or Durango-class gaming on a laptop, but PS3-class gaming is certainly attainable. In the past, Intel's "GMA" integrated graphics processor has been nicknamed "Graphics My Ass" compared to even a low-end AMD or NVIDIA GPU. But a year ago, a PC with an Ivy Bridge CPU was seen to run Skyrim at over 40 fps. If a PS3-class game runs that well on Intel graphics, think of how much better AMD's laptop GPUs will handle it.

  10. Whats their plan for Switchable Gfx? by JC61990 · · Score: 2

    This is cool and all being that linux is slowly starting to take off in the world of the gamers. But my bigger concern is, what is dell/alienware doing about the IvyBridge switchable graphics? I have an Alienware M14x R2 with the 3rd gen i5 and a nvidia gtx650. BIOS doesn't let you enable just the video card you must run ivybridge at all times, so how do they plan to implement Bumblebee or maybe their own type of driver? I have ran ArchLinux on my alienware for a few months now, and i have barely been able to get bumblebee running nicely. Ive even switched my laptop over to Ubuntu at one point just to see if it was a difference in distros, which it wasn't. Unless nvidia has secretly been working on some kind of driver for the Optimus cards that i dont know about, then i would say this might be a bad move right now imho.

  11. Steam DRM tends to feel less evil to the user by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    DRM on Window - Evil
    DRM on Linux - OHMERGOSH I CAN'T CONTAIN MY ERECTION!

    That's because the DRM on these Linux games tends to be Steam DRM. DRM is evil, but Steam DRM tends to feel less evil to the user in practice. Unlike Assassin's Creed 2 and SimCity (2013), which made headlines for requiring a continuous Internet connection during gameplay, games using Steam DRM only require the user to connect to the Internet once after installation and every 30 days thereafter for single-player or same-screen multiplayer mode.

    1. Re:Steam DRM tends to feel less evil to the user by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3

      Sorry - DRM is still evil. I might consider a game or something that I have to connect to the internet ONE TIME for verification. Every thirty days after? No sale. No phone home features, thank you very much.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    2. Re:Steam DRM tends to feel less evil to the user by Entropius · · Score: 2

      Well, this last month some people went to the Internet and said "Give us money, and we will make you a spiffy game, and will sell it DRM-free. We'll need about a million bucks."

      The Internet gave them $4 million, so much money that they had to scramble to find ways to spend all of it to make their game spiffier.

  12. Re:And end up selling one copy by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    You should read more of Jim Baen's free library.

    They put free books online. They are free as in free beer, just download it and enjoy. Free, free, free. Baen pirated the books himself, opening his own warez site to do so.

    Multiple authors have noted that soon after putting the book online for free, sales of that book skyrocket. Mostly, they put older, out of print books online, but that book immediately sells like hotcakes in bookstores around the nation. Hell, around the world, I guess. Not only does that particular book sell, but related books sell (anthologies and such). PLUS - the author notices an increase in his other works.

    Free publicity always pays.

    Entertain the masses, and the masses will reward you. Being a dick about your "intellectual property" just pisses people off. Many gamers have told us the same thing, right here on slashdot. Jim Baen agreed, he put his money where his mouth was, and he proved the theory to be right.

    Rest in Peace, Jim Baen - the world needs a lot more people like you!

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  13. Re:Pay to upgrade their experience to what? by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm not the one trying to make a living by entertaining people. In fact, I'm very UNentertaining. People pay to not see or to hear me.

    What I know for sure is, gaming is trying to follow in the footsteps of the music and movie industries. They really need to back up, look at reality, and find another way to go.

    I no longer play games. I got tired of them. But, I know for a fact, that purchasing a game, only to run into DRM bullshit only forces people to torrent the cracked versions. I did it, and I've watched my sons do it. Whether it's a CD check, or an online activation check, or whatever, if I have to jump through a hoop to play the game, it's not worth playing. Just grab the cracked version, and you don't have to jump ANY hoops.

    Just entertain people, and see if they reward you. Stop treating entertainment like it has to be a big business. Don't spend 3 million dollars developing a game, in the hopes that you'll make twelve million in sales. That's just retarded Hollywierd thinking.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  14. Re:Why Bother by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 2

    And yet, I have things that "just work" on linux which don't work at all on Windows.. Removable drives with more than one partition, for one. I can take any flash drive, partition it with two partitions(say one for work and one for play, one for LiveCDs and one for files). Any Linux will see and use all partitions. Windows 7 will only see one. It's frigging annoying.
    Or, say, booting off USB. With USB3, you could easily use an external USB3 drive to boot, and haul it between three computers so you have all your files and settings. Linux? Trivial. Windows 7? Impossible.
    Or how about printer support? I've run into a number of printers which wouldn't work on 7 due to lack of drivers(MFGR didn't care beyond XP)... Ubuntu? autodetect, Just Works.

    Meh. With either system there's problems. At least on Linux, the solution isn't "reinstall from scratch" like it often is on Windows.