Turns Out Ubuntu Dell Costs $225 More

An anonymous reader writes "One week ago this community discussed the apparent price advantage of Ubuntu Dell over Vista. The article linked to a Dell IdeaStorm page with the status: 'Implemented.' Today the status has changed on that page to 'Reneged: Ubuntu Dell is $225 More Than Windows Dell.' The full price of a Ubuntu Inspiron 1420N is indeed $50 cheaper than the identical hardware configuration with Vista — except that a $275 free upgrade to 2GB memory and a 160-GB hard drive is available for Windows only."

Re:Just buy it with Vista (XP would be better)

[Evets]

I think that's the point. It improves Vista's sales numbers while showing that the Linux product has very weak sales.

Why would anyone not buy the Vista version if a quick download and a 30 minute install nets you bargain basement upgrades?

DUH!

[Lumpy]

I love how these "revelations" happen far later when the rest of us that looked at it saw right away that the "specials" or "instant rebates" only apply to the windows machines.

There has been people here on Slashdot posting for a few months that the Open source and now linux laptops are in fact more expensive by around $200.00.

Statistics

[ilovegeorgebush]

"Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything." ~Gregg Easterbrook

I'm quite impressed how the (quite obvious) spin was placed on this claim. It's only $275 more if you WANT to upgrade.
Still, i'm definitely disappointed in Dell; i'd have liked that upgrade for free too...(Although Vista would need it to Pagefile usage, whereas Ubuntu would use it for the hoards of FOSS that's available...)

$275, that's nuts.

[smallmj]

$275 upgrade for a bigger HD and more RAM?

Let me check my price lists... A 160 GB Hard Drive Costs $10 more than an 80 GB HD.

2 Sticks of 1 GB DDR2 cost $36 more than 2 Sticks of 512MB DDR2.

So that upgrade costs $46.

Those are wholesale prices in Canadian Dollars available to Mom and Pop shops. I'm sure Dell gets things cheaper.

Re:Vista needs the space

[sqldr]

sounds like you need to try a different distro :-)

At risk of fanning the gnome/kde flames on this thread already, you could try kubuntu.. i'm not saying it's better, but it is different. You might be happier.

    I've not noticed any of these things in kubuntu, except the movie player thing, and that's likely to be a driver issue. Try configuring the underlying player to use a different rendering target, eg. X11 or opengl instead of Xv.

Totally Spot-On

[Anonymous Coward]

I decided to go hunting for a new laptop a few months ago. I priced it out against Dell's website, and some other websites. What I found is that it is *entirely possible* to spec out two identical systems on Dells Website, and have them cost different amounts. It was even possible to get a *lower spec* computer to cost *more* than a higher-spec computer. It seemed to depend on what offer you started from and then customized the machine.

Dell doesn't seem to offer to help you out in finding the best price on their website, e.g., notify you that this system is identical to this system that qualifies for this special offer, and automatically apply the discount.

So, take the time to actually 'shop' for your system several different ways on Dell's website, because it is entirely likely you can get the exact same system cheaper (possibly a couple hundred bucks cheaper, as you see in this case). Some might wonder why bother doing business with a company that makes it so hard to find the best offer? Simply put, once I did find the right offer, I got a laptop for about $1700 that would have cost me about $2000-$2500 for a similar laptop from other vendors. It's worth a couple hours of hassle to save $300-800.