Computer maker Dell recently announced it would offer selected consumer PCs with Linux as a pre-installed operating system option, but that it hadn’t yet settled on which distribution, or “flavor,” of Linux it would support. Now, the company has made its decision: Dell will begin offering the Ubuntu 7.04 Linux distribution within a few weeks.
Dell has so far declined to discuss system configurations, so pricing remains an open question. Many industry watchers expect a Linux-based offering to feature a price tag substantially lower than an equivalent notebook or desktop system pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows; however, Dell may decide to aim Linux at the higher end of its customer base and offer Ubuntu on high-performance systems, where the price savings from the use of an open source operating system and software bundle might not be very dramatic. Although Ubuntu 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” is generally considered one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions, Dell is not expected to offer LInux systems as a general consumer system—at least initially—in order to avoid escalating support costs helping users who don’t know a thing about Linux.
Dell also hasn’t outlined what software it will bundle with Linux-based systems, although the company has committed to using open source software drivers wherever possible. However, for the time being, Dell will likely have to ship proprietary drivers for many video cards.
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