Dell 14" notebook shipped with Ubuntu $299 today only

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>

| On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 02:33:36PM -0400, Christopher Browne wrote:
| > On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 2:25 PM, Lennart Sorensen
| > <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
| > > Is it stock Ubuntu or did they modify it to make it work?
| > 
| > I think this answers the question...
| >    http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201202-10593/

I don't think that that is reliable (but it is surely useful).

- that's old and the hardware has changed since then

- it only certifies the per-installed Ubuntu (1 year out of date, as
  of today (Ubuntu 12.10 was released today))

- even so, Hibernate was disabled.

Another reason for distrust: Dell released netbooks preinstalled with 
Ubuntu that required a Dell-only driver (Poulsbo video).

On the other hand, this hardware looks really stock and should be a
breeze for any current Linux distro.  There is a slight chance that
the wireless card isn't yet supported (I've had that with an HP
computer) or that the ACPI is only good enough for Windows in some way
(the hibernate note hints at that).

| So does that mean if you try to install any other Linux distribution
| (or even Ubuntu version) it very well might not work?

What Christopher pointed at was a promise that an earlier version of
the hardware worked (except for hibernate) with a potentially
customized earlier version of the software.

That sounds negative but in fact it is way more positive than what is
promised with 99.9% of laptops.

| Odd that the ubuntu details lists an nvidia NVS 5200m (it's 10de:1140
| in the unknown hardware section).  I wonder if some models come with that,
| but not this one.

It is optional, perhaps only in US, perhaps only in the past.  Dell
does odd things in their offering web pages.  I think that the intent
is price discrimination.
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