What is Ubuntu and why is Dell starting to sell laptops with it preinstalled?

I noticed Dell is testing the market right now, but soon Dells could have the options of Windows XP, Vista and Ubuntu. This might be good news if I knew what Ubuntu was. What is Ubuntu?

 

Ubuntu is a Linux-based operating system that is free of charge. It's comes preloaded with many software ex. Firefox, Openoffice, GIMP..... all of which are open source. Many user prefer Ubuntu as an alternative to Windows.


Why is Dell selling notebooks with it, I not sure, maybe they're trying to expand their products into the open source market.

 

If I was to buy a laptop now the Ubuntu setup would appeal to me so that I could install my retail copy of windows and not have to pay extra for that oem copy of windows that usually comes with the machine.

 

Yea, that is a good point. Plus with Dell, you know you are going to reinstall Windows anyway. Might as well not have it on there in the first place. Do you think Dell will still put a ton of bloatware on?

 

I would assume they wouldn't. The reason they put bloatware on is because companies pay them to put their products on the systems, but with UBUNTU it is free for them to put it on there. Possibly though.

 

Yea, good point. It would kind of defeat the purpose of open source.

 

Ubuntu technically comes with a lot of "bloatware" off the bat. There are dozens of applications preinstalled in the Operating System, including web browsers, office software, email clients, Instant Messaging software, photo editors, media players, etc. The difference is that Linux doesn't get bogged down at all by having all this software installed as it doesn't do anything on startup (unless you tell it to) and there isn't really a registry vital to the system kernel to get cluttered. Even if Dell started including packages like Google Earth and so forth, the computer wouldn't run any slower unless they made it open on boot up by default.

 

Google really does work for such a simple question. I even gave you a free link to Google.

 

Ubuntu is some Mexican guy. Apparently he's free.

 

Dell appearantly got enough feed back from ideastorm that they felt it was worth selling.

http://www.dellideastorm.com/

 

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It's a joke Commonly known as a non-sequitur