Dell Explores Customer Calls for Linux

By Greg McNevin

March 15, 2007: Dell is edging closer to bundling Linux with its PCs, launching a new poll on its website to help it target customer desires as accurately as possible.

The move comes after the company was flooded with unprecedented customer requests for a Linux-based alternative to Microsoft windows during its recent IdeaStorm initiative.

IdeaStorm was launched as a way for Dell to reconnect with customers, what it found is they overwhelming desire a Linux and OpenOffice.org solution, with over 200,000 respondents voting for the bundle to be offered with new Dell PCs.

“We hear your requests for desktops and notebooks with Linux,” wrote Dell's Linux software architect, Matt Domsch, on the company blog. "We're crafting product offerings in response, but we'd like a little more direct feedback from you: your preferences, your desires."

While Linux is steadily growing in popularity, to cross over into the mainstream requires a significant shift in thinking, not only from the general public but also from vendors. If Dell decides to offer a Linux platform, it could be just the toehold the open source movement needs to vault itself into the consumer and business markets at large.

The survey will run until March 23, after which Dell says it will analyse customer responses and although it has not formally committed to offering Linux, the company says that it will provide platforms and options to suit its customer.

In other open source news, after deciding to make the switch to Linux a few months ago, the French Parliament has settled upon Ubuntu as its distribution of choice. From June, 1,154 computers will be running Ubuntu and other customised open source applicaitons

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