Dell's Multimedia Mini PC Ships With Ubuntu

by Sam Dean - Nov. 17, 2009Comments (13)

It measures 8 inches by 8 inches--a mini system--but it packs some powerful features and is available with Ubuntu Linux pre-loaded. Dell's Zino HD Desktop computers sell for $230. For that you 8GB of RAM, you can choose from one of ten colors, you get discrete graphics, and you get some notable HD and entertainment-oriented options. It's good to see the world's number two PC supplier shipping Ubuntu on a desktop computer in addition to shipping it on netbooks and laptops.

The Zino HD desktops offer HDMI output and you can choose an optional Blu-Ray Disc drive. The standard 1TB of hard drive space is also proof positive that you can start to expect a terabyte in reasonably low-cost computers now. The system comes with one of four AMD Athlon processors, with the Athlong 2650e 1.6-GHz chip standard. ATI's Radeon HD3200 graphics card is also standard.

If you haven't used Ubuntu lately, it's much more graphical and multimedia-friendly than it used to be, and could be a good OS choice for the Zino HD. You can also get Ubunu on Dell's Mini 10v netbooks, as we discussed here.

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 17, 2009

Too bad it's ATI graphics ....

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 17, 2009

You might want to check with Dell to confirm that. A Dell sales rep told me that there was no possible way to get a Zino with Ubuntu preloaded.

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 17, 2009

You can get this little box with Ubutnu 9.04 pre-loaded. Look at the spec page:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspiron-zino-h...

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 17, 2009

You get your choice of Windows 7 or Ubuntu 9.04

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspiron-zino-h...

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by rankwankjank on Nov. 17, 2009

Agrees with second anonymous user. There is no option for Ubuntu to be selected as O/S.

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 17, 2009

Yes, I saw the spec page, and I showed the spec page to the sales rep. They flat out told me that the spec page was wrong about Ubuntu.

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 18, 2009

on the UK dell page you can't even get windows 7 let alone ubuntu - it's listed as xp only

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 18, 2009

just chated to a dell online rep and there is no ubuntu option. Also the Zino HD comes with win 7 whilst the zino only comes with XP.

Also the above article says 'Dell's Zino HD Desktop computers sell for $230. For that you 8GB of RAM,' i'm assuming this is a typo and shuold read 'you get 8GB of RAM' - which is also wrong as you get 1GB for the base price and then have to upgrade

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by John Mark Walker on Nov. 18, 2009

Wow. Dell really screwed the pooch on that one.

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 18, 2009

Dell does stuff like this with everything they sell. Most of their Ubuntu PCs have a more limited hardware options (no wifi on a desktop, sometimes fewer graphics card options, etc) compared to the identical machine shipping with Windows. They've been known to mysteriously pull Ubuntu PCs for weeks at a time.

If you want an OEM that takes Linux seriously, you'd be much better off ordering a PC from either ZaReason or System76. FYI, they also ship Windows drivers with the PCs in case you want to run Windows on them as well.

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by an anonymous user on Nov. 18, 2009

Dell has an ubuntu page but only three systems listed there:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=e...

If choosing Ubuntu in place of Windows means more memory, hard drive etc. it would be a perfect choice for this Zino box to be used as a media gateway - maybe running Boxee.

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by Buy Kindle on Jun. 01, 2010

I think using ubuntu is not good bcz of less features than windows......

http://buykindleonline.org/

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by an anonymous user on Dec. 06, 2010

Check these guys for mini pc, mini desktop, mini computer:

Low power consumption teamed with great performance.

Low Carbon PC http://www.lowcarbonpc.com

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