Direct2Dell

No problems with Vista, but it does NEED 2 gigs. --Mike

I would be greatly interested in the Mini-12 except for one crucial deal-breaker: it has Vista. Sell me one with Ubuntu and we have a deal.

I think that the Dell Mini 12 is an interesting product, considering that there are no real alternatives for this price and these specs (at least for now). Starting from this point, I really don't understand why Dell is killing this product by: * preloading Windows Vista. I'm using Vista right now, and I don't dislike it: still, we all know Vista requirements (real, not minimum) and this hardware is too slow to run Vista smoothly. * ignoring the international market. I live and work in Italy, and this product isn't available at all. Dell is already selling the Mini 12 in France and Germany (even if you can't configure options, like the Dell Mini 9 in Italy, and this is ridiculous for a Dell product): Italian market isn't worth it?

I agree with disgruntled about the back to the drawing board part, but not for _any_ of the reasons he/she mentioned. Frankly, the thought of putting Vista on something like this makes me shudder - but it should be a very competent system with Ubuntu or another GNU/Linux OS on it. Yet, that's not an option provided by dell. I also agree that the price point is too high. It's not that different from the Vostro 1000 that I bought last year for work, and it isn't much smaller. The specs I've seen just don't make me want to run out and buy one. There's a huge demand for decent netbooks at a sub $500 price, and this just isn't hitting it for me. When I can get a decent Ubuntu driven netbook for $300, with reasonable specs (eg, more storage space than a low end Ipod and a shift key in the right place.) I'll be all over it. What am I missing?

I vote that this unit gets returned to the drawing board. We already know what happens when you run Vista with just one gig of RAM, and if you have no plans in the future to expand on that, you're going to end up with a bunch of those back to you, and in the Outlet, hoping for someone to take one home. Even worse is that combined memory+processor board thing you're trying on that. (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1210/en/sm/cpu.htm#wp1084976) It's like biting your thumb at the aftermarket users of the hardware in a year's time when someone sells the thing on Craigslist to get a bigger notebook, and biting your thumb at people who let the warranty run out, and have their memory module die for whatever reason. I'd have to agree with the guy who mentioned the Vostro. At least the memory and processor aren't like conjoined twins doused in radiation. :-|

Also its only $100 cheaper then the inspiron 13. Also You can get a 10 inch screen asus pc at best buy for $399 with a 120 gig hdd . I think charging $150+ just for a bigger screen is rediculous. Especially when your competitors are much cheaper.

Why in the world would I buy one of those when I could be a Vostro a860 for $379? "The Dell Vostro A860 we've heard so much about has finally hit the Stateside scene, and it looks like we'll finally be able to get our hands on the laptop that those lucky folk in the "emerging markets" of Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America have been into since before it was cool (that is, late August). Starting at $379 with Dell's instant savings, the 15.6-inch, 5.4 pound laptop comes with either a Celeron or Pentium Dual Core processor, GMA X3100+ integrated graphics, up to 2GB of memory, up to 160GB storage, 1366 x 768 display resolution, WiFi and optional Bluetooth. This "speed demon" comes preloaded with Vista Home Basic or Vista Business and is available now at Dell's website. "