Wow, Dell is Cheap...

Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2007

So Dell started selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed today. Once Teresa goes back to school, we may be in the market for a desktop at home so I priced out one of the Ubuntu-powered Dells. I picked a Dell Dimension E520n with:

I even threw in the “plant a tree for me” option for $6 and the total came to $915. Damn. Of course, I’m a long-time Mac user, but Apple simply doesn’t make a comparable system right now. They make the iMac, but I’m not a real fan of the all-in-one design. They make the Mac mini, but in order to make it so tiny, they use expensive laptop parts so depending on how you spec it out, it’s either overpriced or underpowered. I’ve played around a bit with Ubuntu and it’s not bad at all. I had a dual-boot setup on my Macbook for awhile and the only problems I had were laptop-specific (poor power management, weird trackpad behavior, etc.), so I could totally imagine being comfortable with it on a desktop. Of course, my conscience might prevent me from going Dell though. I’ve long thought it would be fun to build-my-own PC, and in lieu of that, I’d be tempted to support a small company like System 76 before Dell. Michael Dell’s politics don’t help either. But anyway…cheap.