[GTALUG] option pricing quirks on Dell's XPS 13 plus laptop

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

I just got an ad for this.  The XPS line from Dell is quite nice but also 
quite expensive.  To use marketing terms, "XPS" is the top "prosumer" line 
from Dell.  The top non-flashy line is "Precision". My main laptop is an 
older XPS 15 that I bought used.

You can configure an XPS 13 plus here:
<https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/laptops-ultrabooks/xps-13-plus-laptop/spd/xps-13-9320-laptop>

- Ubuntu Linux 20.04 is an option!

- Note: "Ubuntu Linux", not "Ubuntu".  This seems to be against Ubuntu 
  branding strategy (unless that changed)

- Ubuntu Linux reduces the price from Win 11 home by $130 -- an 
  astonishingly large difference since Win 11 home probably costs Dell 
  almost nothing.  (Windows 11 Pro costs $110 more than Windows 11 Home.)

- these days, most notebooks have soldered RAM so you cannot upgrade the 
  RAM after purchase.  So (1) you have to buy with as much RAM as you 
  think that you will ever need, and (2) RAM can be priced rather high.  
  When I bought my XPS 15 three years ago, I replaced the 8G of RAM with 
  32G for well under $200: I love socketed memory.

- if you choose 32G of RAM, you cannot chose an i5 processor, you must 
  choose one of the two i7 options.  This is not a technical requirement: 
  the i5 chip can handle up to 64G of RAM (not an option)

- 16G costs $150 more than 8G.  You can only choose 8G with an i5.
  This has no basis in technical requirements.

- 32G costs $100 more than 16G. You can only choose 32G with an i7-128OP
  This has no basis in technical requirements.  But it adds to the cost of 
  32G since the processor upgrade from i7-1260P is $175.

- you can choose Ubuntu Linux only if you have chosen i5.  So you can only 
  have 8G or 16G of RAM with Ubuntu Linux.  These are not technical 
  requirements of Ubuntu Linux.  This seems odd since Linux models are 
  aimed at developers.

- Oddly, when you flip between Ubuntu Win 11 Home and either Linux or Win 
  11 pro, the i5 option's legend changes but there is no difference in the 
  processor.

- All display choice are very good but some are great.  OLED!  UltraHD!
  All but OLED are 500 nit!

Being a bottom feeder, I'm not going to buy any of these.  They start at 
$1669.