Beefier (Ubuntu Pre-Installed) Desktop Series needed for powerusers

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Beefier (Ubuntu Pre-Installed) Desktop Series needed for powerusers

330 points posted to Inspiron products, Linux, Desktops and Laptops by sethloco Mar 10

The current Inspiron 530N's mobo/processor/casing falls a little short of what a poweruser would be looking to buy. I think there would be a market for an upgraded desktop, because in recent times, there are a lot of linux powerusers who are finding that they don't have to build their machines from scratch and do a bunch of research on hardware compatibilities. However, they still expect top-notch machines and a short glance at the Inspiron 530n sends them elsewhere. It would be nice to offer a sub-$1000 (base) desktop series with specs more like the following.
PROCESSOR: Q6600 2.4GHZ core 2 quad or E6550 2.33GHZ core 2 duo. Some of us like to run vm machines.....help us out!
CASE: Just something larger with ample space to put 2+ hard drives and good heat dissipation
POWER SUPPLY: 500+ watt options
MEMORY: Again...with those who use vm machines, it's nice to have the option of 4GB+ of memory. The fact that the current Inspiron bios cripples this is a major showstopper. As an aside, Dell's current memory is overpriced. A Linux poweruser buying this theoretical machine, who by prior necessity is used to building their own, is going to know that and purchase memory elsewhere.

Thanks for the IdeaStorm site!

jdelidc Mar 10	crud, wrong button. lo siento
zanlok Mar 10	okay, dude. my Precision 690 workstation with 8GB RAM is already great. (for hosting several vm's at once) the solution is not to try and make an Inspiron do the vm job
sethloco Mar 10	zanlok, that sounds reasonable...hence the need for a new desktop series.
zanlok Mar 10	new.. what? there's too many models already. why can't dell just have one desktop and one laptop? (with configuration options for internals, of course?)
sethloco Mar 10	zanlok....I'm sorry. I think we're cross-talking here which is my fault for naming my post badly. I'm talking about Dell's line-up for pre-installed Ubuntu linux machines. Their current (and only) desktop being the Inspiron 530n which is what I'm addressing the shortcomings of.
winoffice Mar 10	I think that the Vostro 400 can have all or a part of those specifications. The XPS 630 and 720 are powerful PCs which probably have those specifications. The Precision line of desktop PCs and notebook PCs are very powerful, and they probably have those specifications as well.
sethloco Mar 10	I'm really wishing I had named my post differently right about now. Oh well, it's my first post and I thought the CATEGORIES section would infer what I should have named it. If anybody cares and can read this, "BEEFIER DESKTOP SERIES FOR PRE-INSTALLED UBUNTU LINUX LINE-UP NEEDED FOR POWERUSERS"
zanlok Mar 10	Right. The 530 "N". I think most of us get that. I don't like the "N" thing so much. The OS should just be a software choice, not a model.
zanlok Mar 10	P.S. you can use the "Edit Idea" link (appears only for you in the categories) if you really want to change your idea.. though it isn't exactly fair to those who have already voted
sethloco Mar 10	Thanks! Added the "ubuntu pre-installed" to the title. Your right, I think changing the title is a little unfair after people have voted, but in this case I think I'm just confusing people without the change.
aikiwolfie Mar 10	Ubuntu works flawlessly on the XPS 700 and the XPS 720. You can't have Sound Blaster X-Fi though as Creative won't release the data sheets to the Alsa project until they have all their patents sorted out. The on board sound works just fine though and sounds great too.
winoffice Mar 10	Yes I bet that the XPS 720 is a powerful gaming PC. aikiwolfie already submitted an idea that asks that Ubuntu be offered on that PC.
matt_d Mar 10	Precision Workstations are really designed to fit the product category I think you're describing. And they're even available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux pre-installed, so you know it works. Should you wish to install Ubuntu on it thereafter, it should "just work" too because we focus all our hardware enablement on kernel.org (modulo the video drivers of course).
sethloco Mar 10	Thank you matt_d. From an initial look, the precision workstations look like a viable option. I will look into those
zanlok Mar 10	the 690 is a beast, man.. well worth the duckets :)
sethloco Mar 11	dang zanlok...that is one heck of a machine...I'm drooling. Next phase, as per usual, is how to convince my wife that this is a necessity?.... In any case, I think the precision workstations are going to be the way to go...thanks
jmxz Mar 11	@sethloco: +1 - I'm going through the same conversation here for my home office :)
zanlok Mar 11	Well, since I'm a contract programmer + consultant (with a small business) it is an easier sell for me. I have some extra latitude when I actually use these things to develop soon-to-be production code :)
jmxz Mar 11	Similar here - my home office is one the US offices for a company with most of its employees in Canada. I mostly need to justify the space/clutter (already have 5 computers in here).
aikiwolfie Mar 11	Thanks matt :oD
jmxz Mar 11	Yes - thanks (again) Matt for pointing this out (IIRC you gave me a similar answer a couple weeks back). Seems I'm not the only one who didn't notice it. Any chance of getting those Precision Workstations on the http://dell.com/open page? Or should I post that as an Idea.
aikiwolfie Mar 11	Well you have to admit the XPS range is prettier :D
sethloco Mar 11	Hey guys...thanks again for your comments. The workstations will be a good fit, albeit not as pretty as the XPS:) Maybe I should open this up as another idea, but perhaps a link to the opensource workstations on the Ubuntu Dell page might be good for idea. Perhaps a link adjacent to (I'm not suggesting which direction) the "Shop Dell PCs with Windows" link
sethloco Mar 11	Oops, didn't see jmxz's post. Thanks for doing that
matt_d Mar 11	jmnx, sethloco, they're linked off of the dell.com/linux page. It's not obvious, but dell.com/linux aims for business customers, dell.com/open aims for home and home office customers - who generally aren't buying Precision workstations with 1kW power supplies :-)
sethloco Mar 12	Then again, there are people sitting at home like me or are aching to express the power of their computer in terms of kilowatts....sweet!
jmxz Mar 12	@matt_d: "jmnx, sethloco, they're linked off of the dell.com/linux page. It's not obvious, but dell.com/linux aims for business customers, dell.com/open aims for home and home office customers - who generally aren't buying Precision workstations with 1kW power supplies :-)" Whoa that's very far from obvious. * The biggest link to products on dell.com/linux (in the section that says "Dell on your desktop", right under the section that says "Oracle Unbreakable") links to dell.com/open. Are you suggesting that your business users shop for home desktops -- yet hiding the business line from home consumers? * Your "home" site for Windows has plenty of powerful systems - even XPS ones - with nicer specs than many of your Precision systems. Yet these are missing in dell.com/open. * Your Precision/Linux page has $533 systems with 375 Watt power suppplies which seem at least as appropriate for budget home users as the $509 system in dell.com/open --- especially since the $533 precision can be upgraded to more competitive CPUs. * Hey - I can't even tell what powersupply is on the desktop in dell.com/open. Surely you're not suggesting that it's less than the 375 Watt powersupply I see on the precision line, are you? I'd think that wouldn't even be enough for home users. * It's surprising that that dell.com/open talks about freedos systems - which as far as I can tell - you never really marketed to home uses but did market to business users. I think it's fine (well, slightly annoying) if you guys want to make home/open for consumers and home/linux for business; but then consider: * Add (or even move) the FreeDOS stuff to your business site since surely not many home users want FreeDOS. * Add a link on dell.com/open to dell.com/linux saying "Business users might want to go to dell.com/linux instead" - since I bet most business customers don't realize that you want them to go to dell.com/linux instead of dell.com/open.

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