First Dell PCs with AMD chips and now Dell PCs with Linux preinstalled. It seems that Dell finally managed to see that giving its customers a choice is the way to go in this matter. Linux has some advantages over PCs that ship with Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows XP. The first and most prominent one is of course the price tag. Dell can reduce the costs that customers have to pay for a PC even further and advertise this properly.According to
DesktopLinux.com Dell will offer Ubuntu Linux on a Dell e-series “Essential” Dimension desktop, an XPS desktop, and an e-series Inspiron laptop.
There has not been an official announcement so far on the Ubuntu or Dell homepage but this is surely going to follow in the upcoming days. This is a great step in the right direction for the Linux community to bring Linux more in the focus of the mainstream media.
Dell on the other hand will receive lots of publicity as well which could surely drive more traffic and sales to their website. It remains to be seen how many users will actually purchase Linux instead of Windows with their Dell systems. One advantage of buying a complete PC with Linux is that all components should work flawlessly with the operating system.
Most average users will probably not recognize a bit difference between Ubuntu and Windows but they surely will be more secure with Linux. This is of course only helpful if you do not intend to play games because you will surely be disappointed. Don’t tell me that new users should use Wine to play them. I think Dell will only supply those notebooks and computers with Linux that are non-gaming PCs.