Dell NOT ignoring netbook market
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Steven_Rosenber Nov 28, 2008 3:25 PM EDT |
In the "doorbuster" newspaper insert from Dell in my Thursday paper, the Inspiron Mini 9 with Ubuntu for $299 got very prominent placement. Yep, a Linux product NOT buried six clicks (and two "it's not Windows" warnings) down in the Web site, but an actual glossy color ad in newspapers across the country. I don't have one of these things -- I don't spend $300 on anything but an L.A. speeding ticket -- but I hope they run without a whole lot of geekery. ... And there's already a VAR guy item on the newswire: http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/11/27/holiday-special-dell-ubu... |
| zenarcher Nov 28, 2008 4:05 PM EDT |
I bought two of them from Dell, one for myself and one for my wife. She had really wanted one, since Dell began offering them. No, they are not a replacement for a desktop system, but really, it's faster than my HP notebook computer, with Ubuntu 8.10, which I installed. I've only had them for a couple of days, but I have to say that I'm highly impressed. The monitor quality is excellent, far above what I expected. They are lacking in multimedia quality, but you can't expect everything in that little package. I did get the 16GB internal drive and I increased the RAM to 2GB, but overall, RAM usage is quite low. They will be taken more places than we ever took the notebook computer and offer more functionality than we have with our Blackberry, so they do fill a pretty nice niche. |
| tracyanne Nov 28, 2008 5:15 PM EDT |
Dell in their ineffable wisdom, do not offer these in Australia, there's no market for them, you know. |
| zenarcher Nov 28, 2008 5:59 PM EDT |
Brilliant, isn't it, tracyanne? And, when we purchase them, we have to sign a "non-export" agreement, too. |
| tracyanne Nov 28, 2008 6:14 PM EDT |
I'm guessing there is some sort os an agreement with Microsoft, that preculdes them selling the stuff into Australia, but then again I may be wearing my tin foil hat this morning. I just won't touch Dell products anymore. Ok so they don't care, but they certainly aren't providing what the [ex]customer wants. |
| zenarcher Nov 28, 2008 6:41 PM EDT |
Well, keep your tin foil hat, tracyanne, as MS does have a hand in some of the netbook deal. As an example, Dell only offers a maximum of 1GB of RAM with them and not even an option for more. Likewise, the modified kernel Dell uses for Ubuntu Linux will only recognize 1GB of RAM, although the system will handle 2GB. Why? Here's the answer.... http://agaricdesign.com/note/dell-mini-9-an-upgrade-odyssey |
| DiBosco Nov 28, 2008 8:14 PM EDT |
The bloke who did that article about RAM upgrade seriously needs to learn how the focus works on his camera! |
| zenarcher Nov 28, 2008 11:00 PM EDT |
I just took my glasses off while following his pictorial and instructions. Worked fine! :) |
| jdixon Nov 30, 2008 12:53 AM EDT |
> Yep, a Linux product NOT buried six clicks (and two "it's not Windows" warnings) down in the Web site, Except for the "minor" fact that you'd never know it was a Linux product from the ad. The ad mentions Ubuntu, but the ones I've seen don't have the word Linux anywhere in the ad. Does anyone really think this is a coincidence? |
| hkwint Nov 30, 2008 2:13 PM EDT |
TA: If you care about Freedom, you shouldn't buy Intel products either. Research against their anti-competitive behaviour is ongoing in both the US, EU, Japan and South Korea. Worse, they built a multi-billion dollar factory on disputed Palestine / Israel territory, from which Palestine people may have been expelled, but that's hard to say because of all the propaganda from both sides. Fact is, the territory is disputed and I don't want my CPU to come from a manufacturer building in disputed territories where people may have been expelled and where factories are built and people with guns are sent to in order to 'protect' Intel's belongings. Normally I would point people to One in Germany because they sell nice VIA-powered Linux-netbooks, but I just found out they don't ship beyond the EU (and they are also a Microsoft Gold Member!?). So, look for something else that _is_ available over there. PS If you still wear your tinfoil hat, here's a question for you: Why does FF-spellchecker approve Microsoft but not netbooks? |
| ColonelPanik Nov 30, 2008 10:56 PM EDT |
Do you think that the Redmond gang is behind the ever increasing price of postage? |
| tuxchick Nov 30, 2008 11:07 PM EDT |
Quoting: Except for the "minor" fact that you'd never know it was a Linux product from the ad. The ad mentions Ubuntu, but the ones I've seen don't have the word Linux anywhere in the ad. Does anyone really think this is a coincidence? Just another indication that the name "Linux" is radioactive to Redmond, and it still has a firm grip on the short hairs of the Tier 1 vendors. Remember Ken Starks griping about how even IBM, the Great Blue Hero of Linux, won't say Linux? A lot of people got on his case for that, but he was right. Quoting: One of the Panel Suits told me as I stood in front of 400 people, that they don't take an interest in advertising Linux because...http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/10/leave-it-to-little-guy... Quoting: Even more fun, go to the ThinkServer configurator and click on the 'Help Me Decide' button for operating systems. This is what you see: ThinkServer 'Help Me Decide'. So even though you have two operating system options, Windows or Novell SLES, Lenovo only helps you to choose Windows.http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2008/10/who-are-the-rea.html |
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