Ubuntu to be offered by Dell Australia

By Craig Simms on 19 May 2009

The Latitude 2100 is the first product in Australia to come with Ubuntu pre-installed.
(Credit: Dell)

Dell today announced its Latitude 2100, a netbook designed specifically for school children. It is also the first Dell product in Australia to offer the Ubuntu operating system pre-installed.

Dell's US operation has been selling Ubuntu-based products since May 2007, but had said previously that its local operation had not seen enough demand to justify the Linux-based OS.

The Latitude 2100, which features a rubberised exterior and an activity light to notify teachers when a student is using the wireless network, is the first product Dell has offered in the country featuring the alternative operating system.

"From our point of view, we're willing to make it available. This platform primarily was designed for the education segment, but in discussions with our customers before launch there's interest outside the education space in this platform, across a broad range of segments from SMB upwards", Jeff Morris, Dell's APJ director of Commercial Client products said.

"In countries like China and India, open-source operating systems are very popular, so that's another driving factor for us to make it available within the Asian region."

The entry-level netbook will cost AU$706 and is equipped with an Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, 802.11n wireless, gigabit Ethernet, a three-cell battery and will have Ubuntu pre-installed.

Upgrade options include up to 250GB of hard drive space, solid-state drives, a webcam, a six-cell battery and a single-touch touchscreen, although costs have yet to be confirmed. Windows XP Home and Windows Vista Home Basic versions will also be available.

This is not Dell Australia's first foray into Linux — according to its website, it currently sells products in its business range based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop; however, unlike the US these options are not selectable customisations through its online store.

Topics: dell, ubuntu, education, latitude 2100, latitude, pre installed, 2100, australia, product, linux

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Comments (6)

  • i want a linux commented on 05/11/2009 15:21 Report abuse

    well thats good news

    i just found out about ubuntu and i realy want one because of the fact that it is and there seems to be no laptops preinstaled with linux operating systems in australia why?

  • Richard commented on 07/10/2009 14:10 Report abuse

    At last a linux based machine off the rack in Australia. Just bought a machine with Vista and blasted that away for Ubuntu instead. Wish I knew before we bought it !!!

  • LinuxFan commented on 28/07/2009 16:51 Report abuse

    Well done DELL, I already use a Dell Latitude | D830 with Ubuntu. I use it at work. And let me tell you this is an MS shop. I am able to do everything, connect to shares, connect to Ms Exchange (crossover). Write professional looking document with OpenOffice, etc.
    My next machine will be a Dell which comes pre-installed with Ubuntu. Not that I had any problems removing XP and Installing Ubuntu on my current system, but is nice to support those who support the open source community.

  • Martin Gregory Goh commented on 26/05/2009 20:04 Report abuse

    Well done, DELL... Ubuntu is faster, better and most of all, its FREE... that makes prices of PCs & Laptops more affordable for students... Besides, Ubuntu is designed for education and works well with many Web 2.0 applications.

    This will eventually bring cost of education down if schools and colleges can save millions of dollars per year in using FREE Open Source Education Systems...

  • Humphrey commented on 20/05/2009 17:14 Report abuse

    About time. These big manufactures only ever release such a small subset of there products here. Go Dell.

  • tim-techy commented on 20/05/2009 09:19 Report abuse

    Good move Dell , at least now we get a choice...

    Linux , Ubuntu in particular has certainly made Linux more usable.

    We have replaced Windows machines with Ubuntu in our house and the kids love it...

    tim

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