This is rather odd but unsurprising news given the progress of Steam for Linux. Granted, I've always felt that Alienware systems are overpriced for what they are. Though, I'm sure there's a certain degree of bias--most enthusiasts who assemble their own hardware share similar sentiments, and I'm no different. Although I will say that $600 for what they give you in that small form-factor case really isn't that bad. At the high end, the Intel i7-3770 retails for about $300, so $1k for the full system isn't a huge surprise (with the exception of the measly 8GiB RAM and no option to increase it). Also, hilariously, the system configurator suggests special offers for tons of Windows-only software, and suggests printers I'm sure probably don't play nicely with CUPS.
However, what puzzles me about the most about this particular product is how unassuming it is and its design bears striking resemblance to a set-top box or console!
Although it ships with Ubuntu, switching distros shouldn't be all that difficult and probably wouldn't be a bad idea given that Ubuntu forcibly changed the default UI shell to Unity over the traditional Gnome-based experience. Understandably, some people were a bit... upset. But, I suppose you can always revert it with:
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# apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop ubuntu-gnome-default-settings
Or just install KDE:
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# apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
So, for any of you who happen to be in the market for a pre-installed Linux environment for casual gaming, tinkering, or just want to throw money away, this appears to be a viable option.
