[madoublet]

I assume you are talking about the internal components. I have found the components you actually interact with (screen, keyboard, trackpad, etc) to be really well done. Maybe if other Manufacturers spent more time getting these things right and less time on specs, they would have higher profits.

[astrodust]

If Dell made an effort to promote non-Windows offerings, their margins would be a lot higher, but they seem hesitant to pursue this angle aggressively.

Example: http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/dell

The biggest drag on PC profits is paying the heavy Microsoft tax on every unit sold.

[wmf]

The Microsoft tax is more than offset by crapware. I don't know if there's crapware available for Ubuntu; perhaps Canonical can afford to pay Dell for every copy of Ubuntu due to the new Amazon integration.

[astrodust]

If you can find some kind of citation for that, I'd be interested. It is offset to a degree, but probably less than $50 per unit. Windows 8 costs more than that to the OEM.

Also crapware makes your product seem crappier, so you have to drop the price to remain competitive. I'm not sure there's much to gain from it despite how prevalent it is.