[ale] macbook and linux

[Brian Pitts]

James Taylor wrote:
> The specs are not to great compared to what I can pick up for sale at similar or better prices from Costco, Office Depot or even Microcenter.  You don't pay the microsoft "tax", but you pay more for less performance.  It might feel good, but it doesn't make sense economically.

Sure, you can find good deals anywhere at various times, but I don't 
believe Dell is outside the normal price range. Searching Office Depot's 
website for example, their cheapest laptop with a Core 2 CPU is the Vaio 
VGN-NR160E at $799. If I upgrade the 1420N to match, it costs $839.

> It's hard to take Dell seriously about this when they offer the low end of each of their lines for not great prices on their non-ms boxes.

Just a nitpick, but if I had to pick any Dell laptop to call their 
lowend it would be the 1521, not the 1420. The 1420, 1520, and 1720 
Inspirons are close to being the same laptop with only a difference in 
screen size. If you don't think that Dell's Ubuntu laptops are priced 
competitively with their own Windows laptops, you should complain at 
IdeaStorm. [1] People have done so before and gotten results.

I hope I'm not coming off as a fanboy. I'm just pleasantly surprised at 
how happy I've been with my own Dell experience and thought I would share.

-Brian

[1] http://www.dellideastorm.com/