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Dell Mini Inspiron to be called Dell E

The sleek-looking netbook dubbed the Mini Inspiron is due to be launched by Dell under the name E.

The Dell E, which joins the queue to become the latest Eee killer was first pictured last month and has had netbook and UMPC fans drooling ever since.

Then dubbed the Mini Inspiron, a Dell source has reportedly told Engadget that the attractive looking machine is to be called the Dell E. It will directly compete against the Asus Eee, MSI Wind U100, HP 2133, Acer One and a whole slew of other ultra portables.

Dell is also rumoured to be launching an E sibling called the E-slim with a 12.1" screen and a thickness of just 0.8" to go up against Apple's OS X-powered MacBook Air.

Engadget reckons that the new E machine has three USB port, a built-in card reader, an Ethernet port so you can plug it into a wired network, and a VGA out so you can attach it to a larger display or to some televisions.

There are few details available on the machines as yet, and no word on which operating system they may ship with, but Dell already offers Ubuntu Linux on its machines, so it's feasible that the E range might ship with this OS, as well as a Windows XP option.

Such a move is likely to delight Linux tweakers, as many people who purchased the original Asus Eee were quick to replace the Xandros Linux OS with Ubuntu or one of its derivative distros.

Ubuntu is currently working on a suite of software called Netbook Remix which is designed to make it easier to use the existing applications in Ubuntu 8.04 on machines with much smaller screens.

The same methodology has been used successfully by Asus in their tweaked version of the Xandros Linux OS.

The Dell E is rumoured to have a price of $299 at launch and is due to be released next month. Engadget reckons the Dell E Slim is currently unpriced and is due out in September.

Published: TechPad.co.uk Sunday 13 July 2008, 1:56 pm
Views: 17,317 times
Filed under: Dell Mini Inspiron E UMPC netbook Ubuntu Netbook Remix

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