Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 108 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#51

Post by danudey »

deeg wrote: post #48
pwg wrote: post #2

More 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.

Does Dell offer a "clean" version of Windows for the extra price? I can come up with competing reasons for why they would/wouldn't do this.

This might be an option for business or enterprise versions; I know our company buys everything from Dell so we have a good relationship, and I've seen discussions of being able to send a system image to Dell for them to put onto laptops that you order.

If you're not spending a huge amount on laptops, though, I can't imagine this being an option they want to offer.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#52

Post by Kon-Peki »

On the Dell website, you can check out their workstations and see some of the price differences. For example, choose the Precision line. Then for any computer that has a "show all choices" when it lists the operating system, choose the customize option and you can see the prices for all the OS options they give. I randomly chose an i5 desktop and from Windows 10 Pro switching to Ubuntu 20.04 reduces the price by $75, but switching to Red Hat increases the price by $70.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#54

Post by danudey »

avianlyric wrote: post #44
acchow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the software that gets installed and what does it do? Do they actually show ads ?

The pre-installed software is the ad . The software manufacturer hopes that consumers will buy their subscription or full priced software. After all, people believe they need antivirus software to stay safe (the fact antivirus software can be worse than the virus doesn’t change people beliefs) so why not buy the one that’s already installed on their PC? Or another way of looking at it, Google pays Apple billions each…

I once set up a new Dell system, and it took something like 30 minutes to actually start and get to the desktop, and then a huge amount of time afterwards answering "yes I for really really real don't want your stupid demo" to a dozen pop-ups, and then another hour of uninstalling all the crap it had.

I cannot imagine anyone non-technical having to go through that and deal with BS like daily pop-ups "reminding" you to renew your subscription because "your PC is not protected" and so on.

It's honestly asinine, but hey, just buy a Mac or a Linux Dell I guess.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#55

Post by downrightmike »

deeg wrote: post #48
pwg wrote: post #2

More 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.

Does Dell offer a "clean" version of Windows for the extra price? I can come up with competing reasons for why they would/wouldn't do this.

Maybe if you order the factory restore disks after the fact.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#56

Post by aidenn0 »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #34
nicolaslem wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every laptop is a linux laptop if you stay away from nvidia and get last year's hardware.

honestly since 20.04 ubuntu or so, nvidia works pretty well on linux (other than battery life on laptops which is still not good).

If all you need is a framebuffer, nvidia is fine. However I regularly run into 3d applications that either only run (either at all, or without significant artifacts) with nouveau or only run with the nvidia binary drivers. I reboot fairly regularly just to switch between the two.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#57

Post by encryptluks2 »

nicolaslem wrote: post #16
encryptluks2 wrote: post #12

One thing to note is that using Arch I haven't had any issues with hardware on any computer I've tried, and usually you can find a comparable Acer or MSI with much better specs for significantly less. I usually don't see much benefit with purchasing overpriced hardware.

Every laptop is a linux laptop if you stay away from nvidia and get last year's hardware.

Again, no issues on Arch. People running other distros may have issues due to slower package and kernel updates.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#58

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

pavlov wrote: post #17
dmajor2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Further evidence that crypto is truly a cancer on software.

> truly a cancer on software.

Possibly crypto, definitely a lot of AV software.

Re: Ask HN: Why the $200 Overhead on Dell XPS Laptops with Linux?

#60

Post by panarky »

pavlov wrote: post #17
dmajor2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Further evidence that crypto is truly a cancer on software.

Further evidence that free antivirus tools are malware.
Post reply on HN