I have been planning to buy the first device to run Ubuntu or Android that I could edit Wiki's, Google Docs, and Pygame that was under $400. Not only does the new Dell Mini 9 qualify as such a device, but it comes with built in cell phone antenna, so that this will soon be the first laptop distributed heavily in the United States as a laptop you can get internet anywhere you can get cell phone reception. So far it has been rumored to be a top of the line UMPC/Netbook, and is at the low end of the price spectrum. In other words, they have taken the ultimate step in building user access.
Remember back when I railed against the Mac Mini for not getting it's price down to $200 and becoming THE home & office computer, leaving the Microsoft campus in smoldering ruins? Dell IS doing this to a greater degree than Mac has attempted, giving a $50 (out of $400) discount for the Ubuntu version. This has the potential to become THE computer of our time (as the Apple II was the computer of the 80's,) with Ubuntu as THE premier operating system. (Many reviewers have noted that beefy Netbook Ubuntu is vastly preferable at least for business purposes to watered-down Windows.) This could leave the Microsoft campus in smoldering ruins inside of 5 years IMHO. (A likely alternative is of course that Windows 8 be an Ubuntu variation.)
I am wondering what side of the prophesied patent/trademark/copyright Armageddon Dell stands on. They are the most significant laptop company to ship with Ubuntu preinstalled, but they haven't exactly turned their backs on Vista either. (Even with the Mini 9 they made the Windows version available first.)
