Dell Laptops w/ Ubuntu

[Benzino]

Has anyone looked into the new Dell Inspiron and XPS laptops that come preinstalled with Ubuntu 7.10? I'm considering plopping my tax refund on one because having a laptop that I could dual boot XP Pro/Ubuntu would be sweet. But I wanted to see what the [H] thought of them first.

 

[moon02]

I just ordered a xps 1330. I considered getting ubuntu preinstalled, however when looking at the ubuntu section I realized they limited the options I could select and the prices seemed a bit higher. I ended up buying it from the dell outlet. I do recall they did not offer a dual-boot option though. When I had my previous laptop, I scrubbed the hard drive just to get rid of the preload and dualbooted vista/ubuntu. I really do not see what there is to be gained by getting it preinstalled, unless you want to pay for the 1 year of support they provide for ubuntu.

 

[illuminate]

if you have to pay extra for ubuntu... forget it...

just buy a laptop with XP pro, and then DL ubuntu, set up a partition with the ubuntu software.. and then dual boot like that...

 

[Benzino]

I can resize the partition using a built-in Ubuntu utility (or gParted need be.)

What I like about what Dell is doing is removing the hassle of getting restricted drivers working and the possibility of something plain not working. I wouldn't want to buy a different model laptop and have some hardware not be supported.
I am assuming that they have selected the hardware and configured Ubuntu to work out of the box w/ minimum BS.

 

[moon02]

If that is your case I suggest you do either one of two things. You can do a dell install or you can go to the ubuntu forums and see what hardware options can create issues with ubuntu.

here is a thread I found on their forums regarding the xps 1330, I am sure with a little more searching you can find a lot of info, to give you a good basis to make your decision.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=568733&highlight=xps+1330

Good luck with your purchase