Ubuntu on Dell PCs

Notice www.dell.com shows no links to Ubuntu. If you select any of their hardware the only options you will see are the operating systems from M$. To get to their Ubuntu selections you must type in “ubuntu” in their search box and then get lucky on picking the correct links from there. The correct link is http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs. It’s very much like Dell has a marketing agreement with M$ not to advertise the competition. If this treatment of Ubuntu is not bad enough then consider the pricing. Using the Opera browser select the hardware you want with Ubuntu as the OS. (You’ll have to use their back-door service entrance via the URL displayed above.) Then with the Firefox browser pick the same hardware but with windows rather than Ubuntu as the operating system. Check out the total price. I’d expect the hardware with Ubuntu to be cheaper not hundreds of dollars more. I only priced one system so your experience may vary from mine. I bought an Ubuntu laptop about the time this video came out. It came with an old version of Ubuntu. I tried to upgrade but it failed. I tried looking for help on the Dell website and by calling. After a week or so I gave up and reformatted my hard disk and installed the latest version of Ubuntu from scratch. It all worked flawlessly that way. Why do I bring this up? Because if you know this you can get a discount on the hardware by buying it with M$ preinstalled. You get a free copy of M$ you can then install in a vmware box running under Ubuntu. And you can save yourself the trouble of trying to make Dell’s botched installation of Ubuntu work for you. This is clearly the way to buy a decent laptop you know will work with no problems with Ubuntu.