Dell to ship pre-installed Linux

PC-maker Dell has promised to start selling notebooks and desktops preloaded with Linux and other open source software products after being inundated with customer requests for the platforms.

Dell announced yesterday that more than 100,000 people had responded in the past two weeks to an online survey about pre-loaded Linux.

“Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line,” the company announced through a corporate blog yesterday.

“Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer … and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available.”

“The countdown begins today.”

The decision has enormous implications for the PC software industry. Other PC-makers would be expected to follow Dell down the Linux path, and HP is known to already be considering such a plan.

The company issued the survey as part of its IdeaStorm customer consultation process that began in February. Dell launched IdeaStorm to seek direct input – ideas – from its customers.

Overwhelmingly, the biggest IdeaStorm talking point was open source software. Dell then posted the online survey to descover more precisely the open source preferences of its customers.

In announcing the Linux plan, Dell also released some of the broad findings of its survey, including that 70 per cent of its respondents said they would use a Dell system with Linux for both home and office use.

Survey respondents said they wanted to be able to choose Linux on a variety of different Dell notebook and desktop products. They also said existing, community-based support forums would meet their technical support needs for a tested and validated Linux OS.

They also said that improved hardware support for Linux is just as important as which Linux distributions are offered.

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Pre-installed penguin mooted for Dell, HP

GLOBAL PC market leaders Dell and HP are considering offering boxes pre-loaded with Linux and other open source software in the face of growing customer demand for the service.

Both companies have been watched the demand grow for years, but have chosen to turn a blind eye.

The complications of licensing arrangement with their powerful software partner – Microsoft – has made any decision to pre-load Linux more complex than it might appear to the casual observer.

But the demands have become more difficult to ignore, particularly for Dell, which has launched a customer-facing web site called Ideastorm that aimed to elicit ideas from its user base.

In less than three weeks, Ideastorm has attracted 110,000 comments from people talking about pre-installed open source Linux – by far the most talked about idea talked about by customers.

And the next most discussed topic was a suggestion – with 72,000 comments – that Dell pre-install OpenOffice, either alongside Microsoft Office or MS Works, or instead of them.

Dell hasn’t officially commented on the response it has received from the Ideastorm, although a spokesman was quoted on US media sites saying the Linux buzz was “being taken into account” and that users should stay tuned.

Hewlett-Packard is also said to be considering offering pre-installed Linux as a product option – but says it is responding more to demand from corporate customers.

CRN magazine in the US quotes HP worldwide director of open source and Linux marketing Doug Small saying a series of massive deals for Linux desktops were “indicators of critical mass … so we are looking at it very hard.”

The company does not sell PCs or notebooks pre-loaded with Linux, but has several systems that are certified for both SUSE and Red Hat. It will pre-load Linux as part of custom orders, usually for large enterprise roll-outs.

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