Three years have passed since Dell announced Sputnik, the first of its laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled. Moving away from Windows and reclaiming the ability to choose an operating system is an appealing idea for many users, but the prices have never been entirely friendly. This time, Dell aims to change that with the relaunch of its Inspiron 15 3000 series, offering more accessible hardware with Canonical's operating system inside.
A More Accessible Ubuntu Option
Putting Windows in the background isn't such a strange project. The magic of dual-boot is on our side, and it's an interesting way to manage our time in front of the computer. For example, a programmer can work on a Linux distribution and leave Windows in the role of a multimedia platform, where compatibility with advanced games and hardware tends to be a bit better. Granted, Linux can do all that and more, but the idea here is to expand our choices, something the big names in the market aren't too keen on. That leads us to the dominant position of Windows among new computers. Microsoft is doing its job well, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a system (be it a laptop or desktop) that doesn't come with Windows 8.1 preinstalled. Fortunately, "unlikely" isn't "impossible", and one of the most important alternatives is offered by Dell.
What we have here is the relaunch of the Inspiron 15 3000 with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS preinstalled. Many readers will remember the Sputnik initiative, and since then Dell has offered special editions for developers of its laptops with Ubuntu LTS as the primary option. The most affordable model of the Inspiron 15 3000 uses a dual-core Celeron N2840 SoC (Bay Trail/Silvermont, 22nm) clocked at 2.16 GHz, with a Turbo mode reaching 2.58 GHz. It has 4GB of RAM, storage on a traditional 500GB hard drive, and among the ports we find three USB (one 3.0), one HDMI, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader. Add to that a 720p integrated camera, microphone, Wi-Fi n, and Bluetooth 4.0. As the name suggests, the Inspiron 15 3000 with Ubuntu features a 15.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels.
Price and Configuration
The cost of this laptop is just $249 when purchased through Dell's website. An extra $30 adds an external optical drive or upgrades the processor to a Pentium N3540. The most expensive option costs $349 and includes two years of extended hardware warranty. I would have liked more details on the state of UEFI and Secure Boot on this machine, but as far as I understand, both can be disabled.
