Dell Launches Linux-Loaded Precision 3540 Laptop Starting At ~$700 USD

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Dell Launches Linux-Loaded Precision 3540 Laptop Starting At ~$700 USD

While the new Dell XPS 9380 Developer Edition is a beauty and offers very capable performance, if the price is too much, Dell has launched their "budget" Mobile Precision laptops now with Ubuntu Linux options...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Dell-Precision-3540-Linux

[swagg_boi]

I bet Gnome3 looks real sexy on that 15-inch 1366x768 display

[gQuigs]

I've been tracking what they have for a while: The best link is https://www.dell.com/developers

You can configure it with more ram or 1080p.

The big reason I haven't bought is actually the premium they ask to go from a HDD to a NVMe.

[shmerl]

Good, they should start selling it with Linux for all their models. Cheaper than with Windows naturally.

[swagg_boi]

I've been tracking what they have for a while: The best link is https://www.dell.com/developers

The Precision 3540 I found interesting because you can opt for an AMD card rather than Nvidia

[r1348]

I wish they could launch an XPS with AMD APUs. I know, pipe dream, but in the meantime I'm stuck with HP Elitebook 755/745/725 series.

[kpedersen]

Why don't they just release a laptop for ~£200 officially using boring hardware that is known to work well with Linux? It will be cheap, cheerful and may well become a cult classic.

[r1348]

Why don't they just release a laptop for ~£200 officially using boring hardware that is known to work well with Linux? It will be cheap, cheerful and may well become a cult classic.

They tried. They were called netbooks. They sucked.

[wizard69]

Interesting but with the RAM and HD specs it looks like they are taking marketing cues from Apple! That is post up a nice price for a machine no one would buy today and then charge and arm and a leg for “upgrades”. Maybe they aren’t as bad as Apple but I’m no more likely to deal with them due to sleazy marketing practices.

Sad too too because the hardware could otherwise be very nice with a decent amount of RAM at that price.

[wizard69]

They tried. They were called netbooks. They sucked.

They sucked due to the wrong tech. SoC technology means we have far more capacity potential in a low cost motherboard. This is one reason why I would love to see a high performance ARM based machine to replace the high cost X 86 processors. Put together a motherboard with RAM for $100 add a $100 LCD and you have $200 left over for the case and profit. Yeah I know simplified but £200 is about $400 dollars. If you did Intel for the same performance you would be talking $550 to $600.

Honestly when I see the likes of Dell and Apple offering these stripped down machines, at high prices, I really have to wonder how many people fall into the trap of expensive updates to the hardware purchased through these vendors. 4GB of RAM is close to nothing these days purchased in volume. Oh by stripped down I’m talking about the RAM and storage. The whole thing smacks of bait and switch.