I'm not complaining, I'm just genuinely curious. When speccing out an XPS 13 Developer Edition, switching the OS from Windows to Linux bumps the price up by $200. Is it subsidizing whatever work had to go into validating that the OS works as expected on that model?
Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
1–10 of 108 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#2More than likely, because switching to Linux also drops all the "paid pre-installed windows software" (companies paying Dell to pre-install their software) then this jump in price would give a hint as to how much Dell receives in payment for pre-installing all those windows extras.
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#3Linux might be rare enough that they only make Windows machines and then have someone pull one out of the box put Linux on it if requested.
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#4Just ran into this buying a laptop! I bought the Windows one, nuked it, and had Ubuntu installed in like 15 minutes :D
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#5More than likely, because switching to Linux also drops all the "paid pre-installed windows software" (companies paying Dell to pre-install their software) then this jump in price would give a hint as to how much Dell receives in payment for pre-installing all those windows extras.
What is the software that gets installed and what does it do?
Do they actually show ads?
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#6More than likely, because switching to Linux also drops all the "paid pre-installed windows software" (companies paying Dell to pre-install their software) then this jump in price would give a hint as to how much Dell receives in payment for pre-installing all those windows extras.
What is the software that gets installed and what does it do? Do they actually show ads ?
All of that junk like Norton/MCafee/Cyberlink/Shortcuts to websites.
The Norton/MCafee crap gives you a 1 year 'complimentary' subscription. Many uneducated users will then go and resubscribe to that garbage AV.
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#7Just ran into this buying a laptop! I bought the Windows one, nuked it, and had Ubuntu installed in like 15 minutes :D
Yeah I was kinda wondering, what's their game plan here? Hope that people don't notice the price difference and DIY it? Might just be what someone else said, this is what Dell is not being paid to pre-install whatever
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#8More than likely, because switching to Linux also drops all the "paid pre-installed windows software" (companies paying Dell to pre-install their software) then this jump in price would give a hint as to how much Dell receives in payment for pre-installing all those windows extras.
What is the software that gets installed and what does it do? Do they actually show ads ?
Not generally, no.
Most of the time, it's software that goads you into a subscription after your 30-day trial, like anti-virus packages or HP's ink subscription.
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#9More than likely, because switching to Linux also drops all the "paid pre-installed windows software" (companies paying Dell to pre-install their software) then this jump in price would give a hint as to how much Dell receives in payment for pre-installing all those windows extras.
What is the software that gets installed and what does it do? Do they actually show ads ?
I think it’s mostly junk like mcafee antivirus. Not strictly an ad but it’ll eventually nag you for money at some point.
Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?
#10More than likely, because switching to Linux also drops all the "paid pre-installed windows software" (companies paying Dell to pre-install their software) then this jump in price would give a hint as to how much Dell receives in payment for pre-installing all those windows extras.
What is the software that gets installed and what does it do? Do they actually show ads ?
Norton 360, which if memory serves has been a stalwart of the preinstall game now installs an opt-in Cryptominer. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/01/norton-360-now-comes-wit...