Posted on Wednesday 8th of August 2007 at 02:12 in Linux

Dell offers Linux to UK customers: more expensive and no way to buy?

It happened. We've spoken about it a lot recently and that day has finally (apparently) arrived. Dell is starting to sell Ubuntu machines in the UK. I found out by reading about it on Yahoo News. However, it isn't all good news...

First things first, Dell is going to be offering two different desktop models (no sign of notebooks yet): the Inspiron 6400n will cost ?329, while the 530n will cost ?399. There's no talk of the specifications of these machines either which is a worry.

I have two major gripes at this moment in time. #1 is the pricing while #2 is the lack of a link

The pricing
Well the pricing of the machines may seem inexpensive initially but let's ponder on our US brothers across the pond; they can buy the Inspiron 530n for $549 (?271) whereas we have to pay ?399. That's a massive ?128 more for living in the UK rather than the US.

ubuntu

The link?
Several places have discussed this news today, including computing.co.uk, Ubuntu.com/dell and the Yahoo News I spoke about before. The only link supplied is dell.co.uk/ubuntu yet that doesn't actually offer the ability to purchase anything. Opting to click on "Choose Desktop" results in Dell's custom "page not found" page. So how do I buy one?

So can someone from Dell answer why we need to pay a LOT more for the same product? Also, where can I buy one? Come on Dell, you're not usually this lacklustre.

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