The other day Dell announced that their cute XPS M1330 can now be ordered with a pre-installed Ubuntu Linux, too. "Cool idea - that is", I though for myself in Yoda style. So I went to the Dell web-site in order to check if the thingy would fit into my budget. I was surprised about what I found at Dell's homepage.

It turned out that Dell ships the XPS M1330 with Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux now. Interestingly, the same Hardware with open source software installed costs more than 200€ more than the same piece of hardware having the closed source operating system installed. "OK, but Ubuntu comes with photo management (fspot), photo manipulation software (gimp), an office suite (open office), games (the gnome and KDE games), and CD ripping software (juicer)", one could say for defense. But that software is bundled with Ubuntu by default, anyways.

The things really become worrying as the the price for Windows Vista start around 220€ (at Amazon) for the Home edition. Lets say that the OEM Version is less than the Vista upgrade, than its likely to be more expensive than 50 or 70€. Compared to how much I payed for all Ubuntu and Kubuntu editions together (0€), the MS licenses are still quite pricey.

I wonder how much dollars does Microsoft pays Dell in order to keep their OS looking less expensive than it actually is.