Yesterday Dell released the Inspiron Mini 9 which falls into the sub-notebook / mini-notebook category. It appears to be Dell’s first approach to make something similar to the EeePC. The unit has the option of being shipped with a stripped down version of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS or a stripped copy of Windows XP. The base price is currently at $350.00 for the 512MB / 4GB SSD model running Linux. Since I am always on the road and my signifigant other is a college student, we decided to purchase two of them on opening day. I ordered both units with 1GB of RAM, 16GB SSD (Solid State Hard Disk), and built in webcams. One of the systems was ordered with Windows XP while the other is coming with Ubuntu. I will give additional details and a review once the systems have been received.
A few quick things that I learned while ordering:
Apparently they will only sell the Windows unit with the upgraded 8GB hard because Windows XP and the bundled Microsoft Works & McAfee AV use up much of the drive. I have heard reports that even the 8GB drive is heavily consumed by the OS and additional software. This is one of the reasons I chose the 16GB drive in each machine.
The Windows based system with the 8GB drive apparently comes standard with the 0.3 megapixel camera. The same is not true with the Linux system.
For some unknown reason the Windows machine costs less to upgrade from the 8GB SSD to the 16GB than the same upgrade on the Linux box.
Perhaps they are feeling sorry for the people that order the system that comes with the preload bloat. XD
–himuraken
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