Dell Vista/Ubuntu Comparison

[Warren Watts]

A simple price/feature comparison of two Dell Inspiron 530 computers, one with Vista, one with Ubuntu (thru Dell)


--------------------Vista-------------------------------Ubuntu
Dell Inspiron 530---Intel Celeron (1.60GHz, 800 FSB)----Intel Pentium dual-core (1MB L2,1.60GHz,800 FSB)
Operating System----Vista-------------------------------Ubuntu
Memory--------------1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz------------1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
Keyboard and Mouse--USB Keyboard and Mouse -------------USB Keyboard and Mouse
Monitor-------------No Monitor--------------------------No Monitor
Video Cards---------Integrated Intel 3100 --------------128MB NVIDIA 8300GS
Hard Drives---------160GB Serial ATA -------------------160GB Serial ATA
Floppy Drive--------No Floppy Drive Included -----------No Floppy Drive Included
Network Interface---Integrated 10/100 Ethernet ---------Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Modem---------------No Modem Option---------------------No Modem Option
Optical Drive-------48X CDRW/DVD Combo -----------------48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo
Sound Cards---------Integrated 7.1----------------------Integrated 7.1
Speakers------------No speakers-------------------------No speakers

Price---------------$399.00-----------------------------$398.00

So the way I see it, for the same money, I can get buy:
A computer with a resource hungry OS, a crippled processor and an integrated GPU that uses system memory,
-or-
A computer with a dual-core processor, an Open Source OS, and a 450MHz GPU with 128MB of 400MHz RAM and DVI output.

Hmmm.....

[WastingBody]

They have to do something with the money they save for not using Windows.

[kamaboko]

My Vista Premium hasn't crippled my processor. Moreover, it caches all my RAM so none of it goes unused. If ya gonna pay for it, best use it.

[drbraniac]

Gasp. How dare you call my computer's beloved Celeron processor "crippled"? And besides, sharing is a virtue that extends to computer hardware.

[end sarcasm]

I would personally go for the Ubuntu machine with the dual core. I have an Intel Celeron processor on my PC, which worked fine four years ago...but that was four years ago. It's freakishly slow compared to my experience with dual cores, especially as I worked with multimedia.

[Warren Watts]

My Vista Premium hasn't crippled my processor.

I didn't say Vista crippled the processor. The base PC Dell is offering for a price similar to the Ubuntu offering has a Celeron, vs. the dual-core Pentium they offer in the Ubuntu box.

[Slingshot]

My Vista Premium hasn't crippled my processor. Moreover, it caches all my RAM so none of it goes unused. If ya gonna pay for it, best use it.

It almost crippled my new Dell M1210 when I wanted to chuck it at the wall after it crashed explorer, then crashed the system, crashed after coming out of suspend then having to reboot ...