Convinced by its successful offering of Linux laptops and desktops in the US market, Dell has launched a line of Ubuntu Linux powered machines in the European market.

According to Dell, “We’re making available the Ubuntu Linux distribution … in three countries — the U.K, Germany and France — on Inspiron notebooks and Inspiron desktops to start off and well continue to evaluate,” Zdnet writes.

The Inspiron 6400n notebook with configurations of Celeron 520 processor, 60GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, combo drive and 15.4-inch screen are offered at a starting price of £329, while the Inspiron 530n that comes with a dual-core Pentium E2140, 160GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, Nvidia graphics, DVD rewriter and 19-inch flat screen is priced at £399. Both machines are preloaded with the Ubuntu 7.04 OS and all prices include VAT and delivery.

“The configurations may not be analogous with Windows configurations because Vista has different needs for example in memory, but there is a £40-50 price drop in buying Linux [on PCs compared to preloading Windows],” Dell transactional product manager Adam Griffin told vnunet.

However, Dell has no immediate plans to offer Ubuntu-based machines to enterprises, but said the company would continue to monitor demand.

This development seems to bring Linux closer to the mainstream where 90% of the personal computers use Windows OS. It is interesting to see how Linux and Windows market share will move in the coming months, especially with Lenovo disclosing its plan to introduce a broad line of Linux laptops to the market.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 10:36 pm under Technology.

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