Dell to Offer Ubuntu Linux

By Greg McNevin

May 2, 2007: Heeding its customer’s call for Linux to be offered pre-installed on its laptops, Dell has announced that Ubuntu will be its distribution of choice.

Earlier this year Dell called for customer suggestions on its IdeaStorm website, prompting over 100,000 users to call for Linux to be offered as a pre-installed alternative to Windows. Now, in a follow up posting on the site, Dell has confirmed that Ubuntu 7.04 or “Fiesty Fawn” will be offered via a dedicated Linux section of Dell.com.

"The reason we're going with Ubuntu is because by far and away Ubuntu was the most requested distribution,” said Dell spokesman Jeremy Bolen to computerworld.com. "It was overwhelming, the response we got to the survey."

Dell will support the hardware, however, in standard open source practice support for software will be left to the community, or via a paid subscription with Ubuntu’s sponsor Canonical.

The deal could prove to be a boon for both companies, with Dell gaining much needed traction in the market by catering to a greater band of users and riding a swell of Ubuntu enthusiasm while Ubuntu will score even wider market penetration and the good PR that comes with its attachment to the Dell brand.

Models and pricing have yet to be released, however, according to Bolen Dell could also offer a greater range of distributions in the future, including Red Hat and Novell’s SUSE Linux.

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