Dell's Ubuntu Ultrabook $250 More Than Windows 8 Version

[kellybean]

[citation][nom]mman74[/nom]I love Ubuntu. So much so I would rather run Ubuntu on my old laptop than Vista (not saying anything I know). I would not however pay more for an Ubuntu machine than a Windows 8. This makes no sense whatsoever, and unless MS are subsidizing their machines or are receiving payment from MS to price up Ubuntu machines to make them less compelling, then this decision makes no sense to me. Either way this smells to me of anti-consumer business practices and I personally will never buy a machine from a company that would operates against its consumers.[/citation]
MS has already been convicted once of monopolistic practices.

 

[antilycus]

IT HAS TO BE MORE EXPENSIVE

Otherwise people will buy and get mad at Dell for selling them something with a completely unknown interface. Yes it's good that Ubuntu (I like debian more, but Ubuntu is as close to Debian as you can get) is a choice. But the mass audience isn't ready for it. If people want it enough (businesses ordering it for developers) they will pay the premium as it's still cheaper than paying a tech to install it and get it on same page as the one Dell has.

 

[phate]

[citation][nom]unionoob[/nom]The key is support.Hell I will get flamed but anyways. With windows you get support - all patches for free, now who will do patches for free for my Linux? anyone? No? But why no if Linux is free then do patches for free too for me. now at end please tell me what is cheaper to pay once for Windows or pay for every patch you need for linux.[/citation]

Huh? Ubuntu and most every Linux version have always provided patches for free. Not only for the operating system itself, but pretty much every piece of software in their repositories. Some commercial distributions, such as Red Hat, charge for support, but that's overkill for most consumers anyway.

Back to the main point. Of course this is asinine by Dell, how many years must we sit through these half-assed attempts at selling a Linux machine. I'm sure they'll use slow sales figures to claim that Linux is unsuccessful. It's continually aggravating to see such a half-hearted solution, and then discontinue it because it doesn't sell well.

It's an endless self-fulfilling prophecy.