| Dell adds new notebook to Ubuntu lineup |
Feb. 19, 2008
 Usually, the North American computer giants introduce their latest and greatest products to the U.S. market first, with Europe an afterthought. Not this time. Dell is bringing its latest Ubuntu-powered laptop, the Inspiron 1525, to the Europeans first. Americans will need to wait until later in February for Dell's newest Ubuntu Linux computer.
The Dell Inspiron 1525 was introduced in January as the smaller, lighter and cheaper cousin of the popular Dell 1520. At just under 6 pounds, with a choice of eight colors and four optional design patterns, and with pricing that's expected to start at $499, this laptop is attractive to both the eye and the wallet.
In its Windows incarnation, the 1525 comes with either the next-to-useless Vista Home Basic or the far more popular Vista Home Premium. In short, this is meant as a personal system, rather than a business one. Still, Ubuntu 7.10, unlike Vista, works equally well as a personal or a business operating system even on slow, old hardware.
The components on the Inspiron 1525, however, are neither old nor slow. While no one will mistake the 1525 for a cutting-edge speed demon of a laptop, it does have the goods needed to deliver excellent Ubuntu Linux performance.
The laptop is built around the single-core Intel Celeron 540 processor. This chip runs at 1.86GHz and comes with a 533MHz FSB (Front Side Bus). It has a glossy widescreen 15.4-inch display with a 1280 by 800 resolution. You can also get the display with a matte look. If you, like myself, spend a lot of time looking at computer screens by sunlight's glare through an airplane window, you'll want the matte. Behind the screen, the graphics are powered by an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100.
At the bottom price, the system only comes with 512MB of RAM. While that's a bad joke when it comes to running Vista, it's more than enough for Ubuntu 7.10. At the high end, the system comes with a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5450, a 667Mhz FSB and 3GB of RAM. Pricing for this upgraded version of the Inspiron 1525 appears to be in the $900 ballpark.
For a hard drive, the new line offers from 80GB to 250GB drives. For the optical drive, users can choose from a CD Writer/DVD Reader to a full CD/DVD R/W drive. As with the rest of Dell's new line of Linux PCs, Linux users can legally play DVDs on any of these drives.
To connect with the Internet, the 1525 relies primarily on the Intel Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card. It also has a Fast Ethernet connection and 4 USB 2.0 ports.
Customers in the United Kingdom can already buy the Inspiron 1525 from the local Dell online store. In the States, Linux lovers can only wait and envy their trans-Atlantic cousins.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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