Early Tuesday morning, Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP joined Windows Vista as available operating systems for the Dell Inspiron Mini 12. By Tuesday evening, I found myself ordering the Ubuntu version of the Mini 12 with the 6-cell battery and 80GB hard drive. Despite having installed Linux on countless systems, this will be the first time I've ordered Linux pre-installed for the client PC. I'm eager to find out how well Dell supports their Linux systems.
While the Mini 12 tops the end of the scale for netbooks due to its 12.1 inch widescreen, I believe the Mini 12 will be a perfect Linux replacement for my aging Averatec notebook. Although I wouldn't have minded a smaller netbook, the Mini 12 with its 1280x800 screen resolution and comfortable keyboard was just too enticing. Plus the thought of constantly needing to use the browser's scroll bars with the lower resolution (1024x600) of the smaller netbooks was a concern of mine.
So here ends another chapter in my persuit to get back my "wow" when it comes to an operating system's graphical desktop. The last couple months have especially been long for me as I sat waiting for something like Dell's Inspiron Mini 12 to include Linux as a choice operating system. I'll let you know my impressions of the Mini 12 when it arrives in early January. My first test will be pulling up CMSReport.com into Firefox.
Comments
How did you get those specs
When I went to the Dell website I could only get the 3-cell battery with the Ubuntu OS... or get the larger battery with the Windows XP / Vista OS.
I've seen a lot of
I've seen a lot of fluctuation on the Mini 12 pages the past couple days. Looks like "my" configuration is back...
"...I'm eager to find out how
"...I'm eager to find out how well Dell supports their Linux systems...."
Based on what's out there for Linux now on their support pages, I wouldn't have any great expectations. Hope I turn out to be wrong on this...but the quality of their support will probably be directly proportional to size of revenue stream generated by sales of their Linux-equipped desktops/laptops/netbooks.
Probably right
At work, the majority of our Linux servers are currently from Dell with a smaller percentage from HP. Most of our support calls to Dell and HP are for hardware needs and not for Linux. Now that I think about it, I don't think we've ever had to make support call to either company for Linux support. So this will be a completely new experience to see how well they provide Linux support for their consumer products.
I think you are right though in that Dell's support level will likely be proportional to how much they profit from their Linux sales. Hence, why I wanted to an opportunity to buy a pre-installed Linux system.
linux support
I just put Ubuntu 8.10 on my mini 9 and the nettop server I just built and have found that the best support for Linux comes from Linux forums. Imo, the only need for dell support is for when the hardware crashes. as far as OS support, dell has never been able to help me out and I have had to troubleshoot with google.(only time I ever called for os help was 03 when I got my dimension 4600 and could not create another user on it-dell support had me flash the bios?? and the os would not boot after that, all was well after fresh install of xp. they wanted me to send the whole system back). now I just search for what I need and carefully assemble my own tech support online. Dell has always been good to me for hardware replacement but pppfffftt to them for software and OS support.
Same experience
This is about the same experience I've had with them. One thing Dell also doesn't like is when you dual boot with two operating systems (Windows XP and Linux). Even when it's obvious that the problem (whether software or hardware) isn't the Linux OS or dual boot...they sometimes won't troubleshoot unless you're with the baseline OS (which most times is Windows).
Overall, I have always found Dell's support and customer service to be better than most PC companies out there. HP's support is good on their servers, but PC client support is sometimes hit or miss.
1 GB Memory
How do you feel about the limitation on 1 GB memory? I went through the specs and was able to get the 6 cell battery and was excited with all of the specs until I realized I was stuck with 1 GB RAM.
Not worried
I'm not worried about the 1 GB limit with Ubuntu on the system. My main goal with the netbook is Internet browsing, email, and using to log in remotely for system administration purposes. I would have more concerned if I had ordered Windows XP or especially Vista with the Mini 12.
A concern of mine was the graphics card, but even most of the Vista users have reported that streaming video wasn't too bad on this netbook.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like being limited with 1GB memory and not having the choice to upgrade later. Even the Mini 9 is upgradeable to 2 GB (or more?)! However, if anyone is really planning on doing intensive work with Atom based systems then netbooks are likely the wrong market for them.
New to Ubuntu
I'm new to Ubuntu / Linux so I wasn't sure how much memory it would need. If 1 GB works that's awesome. I'll have to seriously consider this netbook. I really only want it for an easily portable device for accessing email / browsing the web and learning Ubuntu.
1GB is more than enough to
1GB is more than enough to meet your needs ...I'm running Ubuntu Linux 8.04 LTS on an older (circa 2004) Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop with 512M RAM and it does fine with everything I use it for (email, browsing, OpenOffice, etc.)
Video Chipset
I am very interested to hear your experience with the graphics card. The Mini 12 uses an Intel GMA 500, which is not compatible with the normal Intel GMA drivers. What has kept me from plunking down the money is a fear that Dell hacked together a non-accelerated VESA mode to get the system out the door.
I have read that the there are some efforts from Intel/OEM to release a driver but it might be strictly binary, thus limiting upgradability and over-all useful life of the machine.
Otherwise, I think this is a near perfect compromise between the way to small netbook screens and a too cumbersome notebook.