Dell has knocked $100 of the price of its first ultrabook to ship with Ubuntu Linux. Yesterday the company started selling the Dell XPS 13 Laptop, Developer Edition for $1549. But some astute observers noticed that the price was $50 more than Dell was charging for an identical Windows ultrabook.

Now you can get the Ubuntu model for $50 less than the Windows version. It’s available from Dell for $1449.

That’s still a lot of money to pay for a laptop, but the price now better reflects the fact that Dell doesn’t have to pay Microsoft a license fee for Windows software.

On the other hand, the developer edition laptop doesn’t include any so-called “bloatware” such as free trials of security software, office suites, or games. So Dell also isn’t getting paid to include any software on the laptop — something that sometimes helps offset the price of Windows computers.

The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition ultrabook features an Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPU, Intel HD 4000 graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB solid state disk. It has a 13.3 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display (which is probably the least impressive characteristic of an otherwise pretty impressive machine).

It measures 0.71 inches thin, weighs less than 3 pounds, and has a case made of aluminum, carbon fiber, and magnesium.

Dell calls this a developer edition laptop, and is targeting it specifically at web developers. But I think primarily the company wants to make it clear that this is a laptop designed for customers who are comfortable with Linux software, and the developer moniker should help ward off folks just looking to save a few bucks on a well specced portabled notebook.

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