It seems that a major player in the PC manufacturer sphere might actually get past talking about offering the average end user a choice in a desktop OS. No word on which Linux yet or what support options will be available, but the whole overall strategy is more less explained on
Dell's blog. From their
Ideas in Action website is this bit.
Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. 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, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today.
By all accounts I can find Dell isn't saying a whole lot about this other than it will happen and may happen
fairly soon.
I for one would like to see this idea succeed. i hope they give this a lot of thought and planning so time frame in my opinion is not the biggest issue but rather getting it right for the end user is. Things like offering at least two popular distributions and some cool hardware options (as cool as hardware on any Dell is in a relative its got to work seamlessly with Linux sort of way). Then most importantly really promote the products as a valid choice (and the products should be really thought out well enough to be one) to their customers. If Dell can pull this off then that would be really awesome as finally there would be something out there beside OS X and Windows based PCs. I mean since PCs are what every one is building for the desktop/laptop market these days why not have another OS or two supported by at least one of the big time PC manufacturers.
