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Dell charges more for Ubuntu than Vista

@ 2008/02/21

DELL HAPPILY ANNOUNCED a new Ubuntu-powered system a couple of days ago.

The penguin posse was delighted, of course, until it found that the once-direct only seller seems to be charging more for machines sporting the open source OS than for those sporting Vista.

Comment from piotke @ 2008/03/01

I'm sure the ubuntu will be free,but the installation and r&d costs (best drivers, compatible HW, ..) are just as high as for a Windows Based PC. But less buyers is fewer people to split the costs.

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/02/29

Quote:

Originally Posted by wutske

Isn't a part of the charge for ubuntu itself ? I know it's free for personal use, but what about selling it with a computer, it commercial and lucrative from Dells point of view ?

I'm no lawyer, but my understanding is under terms of the GNU license charging for Ubuntu would be a violation, because they are essentially selling a free OS that is in the public domain under licensed to remain free. They would have to bundle it for free, or claim the extra costs is from some other system component or service provided.

Comment from jakebot @ 2008/02/28

more and more i keep thinking about putting that ubuntu disc back into my cmptr

Comment from jmke @ 2008/02/22

it remains free

Comment from wutske @ 2008/02/22

Isn't a part of the charge for ubuntu itself ? I know it's free for personal use, but what about selling it with a computer, it commercial and lucrative from Dells point of view ?

Comment from Rutar @ 2008/02/22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sidney

The charge "is" to pay for support calls.

that's what I thought too

Comment from Sidney @ 2008/02/21

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

you'd almost think they don't want to sell these PCs to their customers to avoid support calls

The charge "is" to pay for support calls.

Comment from jmke @ 2008/02/21

you'd almost think they don't want to sell these PCs to their customers to avoid support calls

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/02/21

Second time they have done this, charging more for linux versions of the same computers...

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