14 DAY TRIAL // A few months ago, one of the biggest names in the hardware manufacturing business decided out of the blue to ditch Microsoft's Windows operating system and adopt one of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu, for an entire line of laptops. The company that did this is Dell and after a while, they decided to expand the reach of their Linux based computers and enter the European market.
While in the U.S. Dell's Linux computers were very well received by consumers - partly because they were cheaper - in Europe, and more so in the United Kingdom, most analysts considered Microsoft's position as immutable. So, any attempt to launch a Linux based line of desktops or laptops would be foolish. One other manufacturer and vendor of Linux based computers even said that while it would gladly sell its Linux machines in the U.K., there is no demand there.
But once again, Dell broke the rules and announced the launch of a line of laptops, similar to the one currently running in the U.S., that came with Ubuntu pre-installed. And the launch was in Europe. But it looks like Dell doesn't like Europeans too much since - according to the news site PCRetailMag - U.K. Customers will have to pay more for a Linux computer than their U.S. counterparts even if the machines are identical. Dell launched two Linux machines in the U.K., the Inspiron 530n and the Inspiron 6400n notebooks, but only the first one is available for purchase in both countries.
The U.S. model of the Inspiron 530n laptop costs $619, while the European one is 36 percent more expensive, for machines with the same technical specifications. This piece of news came after Dell's spokesman Adam Griffin said that U.K. customers will not pay more for the same piece of hardware when compared to the American users. "We have very aggressive bundles in Europe," he said. "They are not more expensive".