Dude, you're getting a Linux-loaded Dell!

After asking users what they wanted to see from Dell in the future -- and seeing an overwhelming hue and cry for pre-installed Linux on Dell boxes, the company tells Desktoplinux.com that it will indeed offer computers with Linux preloaded:

(Quoted material begins here) David Lord, a Dell spokesperson, did say, however, that Dell has been listening to its users and that the users want home and office desktops and laptops. Dell's current offering in this area includes the Inspiron and Latitude laptops and the Dimension and OptiPlex desktops.

The new systems, Lord added, will be true pre-installed Linux systems -- and not just a PC with a blank hard drive and a bootable CD or DVD. Software support is likely to come from the community, however, rather than from Dell. Lord added, however, that hardware support on the Dell Linux systems is likely to be the same as it offers on its Windows-powered systems.

According to Lord, Dell will also make buying the new Linux-powered PCs as easy as possible for customers. Specifically how Dell will to do this -- making Linux an option in Dell's standard sales configuration menu, setting up special pages for Dell Linux systems, or some other approach -- the company is not yet ready to say.

(quoted material ends here)

Dell hasn't yet decided (or revealed) which Linux distribution(s) it will offer, but the company already sells servers and workstations with Linux loaded. The company is also committing to open-source drivers whenever possible. And according to DesktopLinux.com, Novell's SUSE Linux is a heavy favorite to be the No. 1 Dell distro.

Expect HP/Compaq to follow with their own preloaded Linux boxes -- and also expect some behind-the-scenes pressure from Microsoft, which tries to ensure that hardware makers load each and every box with Windows (and gives OEMs low-per-box prices as an incentive). Does this mean that MS will start pulling marketing dollars from PC makers? I've read that while it's $150 to $200 to buy a Windows Vista upgrade at retail, a PC maker is only dinged between $25 and $30 (WARNING: all figures are estimates by me and are not to be taken as gospel) per PC, with much of that money coming back in marketing dollars. How MS actually makes money on these deals is a bit harder for me to see (if, in fact, all or any of this is true), but by preserving the market for MS Office, they make it up on the back end, because people pay for that package (even though they could -- and the Daily News does -- opt for the free Open Office suite instead).

Despite all this Linux talk, my main work box runs XP, and I think very highly of the OS (and the plethora of open-source apps that run on it, by the way), but I'm made less happy by the way MS charges so much for upgrades and ignores all but the most recent hardware in the hopes that you will junk what you've got every two years and buy more MS products in the same cycles.

All I'm saying is if Linux goes legit on the desktop (and while I don't think it is ready, Win 3.1 and 95 weren't so ready either in their time), Microsoft is going to have to do a lot of spin ... not that they've never done that before. Linux is definitely not for everybody, but it could be for more bodies if it came preconfigured and if the GUI utilities to manage networking, printing and application installation get better. The Linux command line is there for all to behold, but most normal people rightly want nothing to do with it.