Bolen told eWEEK that: “Our general view is that when customers win, Dell wins. There is growing demand for Linux in the desktop and notebook space, and we believe that there will be positive response to our efforts. In addition, we are seeing the overall ecosystem evolve with enhanced operating systems and applications that make Linux more appealing than ever”.

Bolen also reminded eWEEK readers that: “it is important to remember that we offer Red Hat on our Dell Precision workstations and have done so for years.”

DesktopLinux.com reports that there should be three models of Dell PC with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-loaded onto them.

The first will be a basic desktop model with 512Mb of RAM and a 160Gb hard drive, an AMD Sempron 3400+ processor and an NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU. An alternative to the AMD processor may well be an Intel 2.8Ghz Celeron D processor, although it is not confirmed at this stage. Systems in this price range are set to retail for US $408 without a screen.

The second PC that Dell is planning with Ubuntu is definitely beefier thanks to a 1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 1Gb of RAM, a 250Gb HD, 256Mb NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE TurboCache and a 19-inch LCD screen at a price of US $899.

There is also at least one laptop due to come with Ubuntu, although there are scant details, other than that the laptop is set to cost between US $899 to $1,149.

Michael Dell is already using Ubuntu 7.04 on his home computer, along with an assortment of software such as Open Office, Firefox and others, as seen on this page at Dell.

The news that Dell would soon ship PCs with Linux pre-loaded has been one of the worst kept secrets in the industry, and for Linux users at least, most anticipated. It won’t propel Linux into the stratospheric heights of the Windows user base in the short term, but in the medium to long term is yet one more Linux threat that Microsoft undoubtedly does not want.
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