Dude, You’re Getting Ubuntu

by on May 27, 2007 · 14 comments

Apparently I can get a Dell Dimension E520N pre-loaded with Ubuntu for $429. That’s with an Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB of memory, and a 250 GB hard drive. The budget machine from Ubuntu hardware vendor System 76 appears to cost $785 if outfitted similarly.

I’m sure I could get an even cheaper system if I put it together myself, but I frankly am not that interested in hardware. I’m perfectly happy to give Dell $50 or $100 to save me the trouble of figuring out which hardware has good Linux support and then comparison shopping for the best deals.

But I’m curious what y’all think: are there other Linux hardware vendors with more competitive prices? Am I likely to have compatibility or other problems with the Dell systems?

Also: Jeremy Reimer at Ars reports that the “Windows tax” appears to be about $50.

SHARE: 14 comments

About Tim Lee

Timothy B. Lee (Contributor, 2004-2009) is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is currently a PhD student and a member of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He contributes regularly to a variety of online publications, including Ars Technica, Techdirt, Cato @ Liberty, and The Angry Blog. He has been a Mac bigot since 1984, a Unix, vi, and Perl bigot since 1998, and a sworn enemy of HTML-formatted email for as long as certain companies have thought that was a good idea. You can reach him by email at leex1008@umn.edu.

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  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com/ enigma_foundry

    One interesting aspect of the advance of linux, and one that is really bad news for any competitor(s), is that it fits into the so-called Tiffany/Walmart paradigm–that is advance from both the high end (on the quad processor machines running custom animation and design software) and the low end (the Dell system that you reference).

    The next step will be that other vendors begin there linux offerings, and I can’t believe that lenovo will be very far behind (although, note the Bill Gates-China tie-in, and the fact that big government and big business are even more closely linked in China than in USA) although perhaps it will be Toshiba, or Sony.

  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff

    One interesting aspect of the advance of linux, and one that is really bad news for any competitor(s), is that it fits into the so-called Tiffany/Walmart paradigm–that is advance from both the high end (on the quad processor machines running custom animation and design software) and the low end (the Dell system that you reference).

    The next step will be that other vendors begin there linux offerings, and I can’t believe that lenovo will be very far behind (although, note the Bill Gates-China tie-in, and the fact that big government and big business are even more closely linked in China than in USA) although perhaps it will be Toshiba, or Sony.

  • http://tieguy.org/blog/ Luis Villa

    Might want to take a look at System76.com, Tim; they have some nicely priced stuff, and are Ubuntu-only. No idea if they are doing anything to position themselves better against Dell or not, but worth looking at.

  • http://www.techliberation.com/ Tim Lee

    Thanks Luis,

    I priced it out and they appear to be considerably more expensive for comparable hardware–$429 vs. $785. It’ll be interesting to see if they start cutting their prices.

  • http://tieguy.org/blog/ Luis Villa

    Might want to take a look at System76.com, Tim; they have some nicely priced stuff, and are Ubuntu-only. No idea if they are doing anything to position themselves better against Dell or not, but worth looking at.

  • http://www.techliberation.com/ Tim Lee

    Thanks Luis,

    I priced it out and they appear to be considerably more expensive for comparable hardware–$429 vs. $785. It’ll be interesting to see if they start cutting their prices.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/14019452 Steve R.

    I hope that Linux can take-off. I haven’t yet taken the Linux plunge as my “pain” level with dealing with MS$ hasn’t quite gotten high enough yet. I have one of my computers set-up with Linux as a test platform. I certainly won’t be “upgrading” to Vista.

  • http://www2.blogger.com/profile/14380731108416527657 Steve R.

    I hope that Linux can take-off. I haven’t yet taken the Linux plunge as my “pain” level with dealing with MS$ hasn’t quite gotten high enough yet. I have one of my computers set-up with Linux as a test platform. I certainly won’t be “upgrading” to Vista.

  • http://www.codemonkeyramblings.com MikeT

    It would be nice if they would offer it on better hardware than that. It’s too bad that we have had to wait this long for Dell to start offering to preload other operating systems. Back in 2000-2001 we nearly got BeOS as an option on new Dell systems. Such a shame because if Be had broken into the OEM market, things would have been much better than with an OS like Linux having to lead the way for people who want alternatives. Hopefully HaikuOS will mature enough in the next six months to a year to make it a real contender with Linux.

  • http://www.codemonkeyramblings.com MikeT

    It would be nice if they would offer it on better hardware than that. It’s too bad that we have had to wait this long for Dell to start offering to preload other operating systems. Back in 2000-2001 we nearly got BeOS as an option on new Dell systems. Such a shame because if Be had broken into the OEM market, things would have been much better than with an OS like Linux having to lead the way for people who want alternatives. Hopefully HaikuOS will mature enough in the next six months to a year to make it a real contender with Linux.

  • CJ

    Re: MikeT’s comment.

    If you go to the Dell website you will find that they have been supporting other versions of Linux on other processors for some time now.

    “Dell supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux on PowerEdge Servers and Precision Workstations, and Novell/SuSE Linux Enterprise Server on PowerEdge Servers.”

    See http://linux.dell.com/distributions.shtml

    CJ

  • CJ

    Re: MikeT’s comment.

    If you go to the Dell website you will find that they have been supporting other versions of Linux on other processors for some time now.


    “Dell supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux on PowerEdge Servers and Precision Workstations, and Novell/SuSE Linux Enterprise Server on PowerEdge Servers.”


    See http://linux.dell.com/distributions.shtml


    CJ

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