Dell selling computers with Ubuntu installed

Thursday, May 24, 2007


Later today, Dell will offer U.S customers three different systems with Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) installed: the XPS 410n and Dimension E520n desktops and the Inspiron E1505n notebook. These systems will be available at www.dell.com/open by 4pm CST today. Starting price for the E520n desktop and the E1505n notebook is $599; the XPS 410n starts at $849.

The idea to put Ubuntu on Dell machines was submitted to Dell's IdeaStorm customer feedback forum on February 16, 2007 - the day IdeaStorm was launched - and was very quickly supported by more than 30,000 community members, so this was something that Dell had to move fast on - the demand was definately there!

A little more than a week earlier, System 76 unveiled a Ubuntu laptop which received a very warm welcome from the computer savvy crowd, so Dell knew this was a very feesable idea that could open up a whole new market for Dell, at the same time lending support to the Ubuntu movement which has basically taken desktop Linux by storm, and is one of the most embraced Linux distros to date, with a very large user base, and an extremely active online community.

As for support, hardware support will be handled by dell. Beyond that, users can turn to the Linux section of the Dell Community Forum for help and also get the latest updates from Dell's Linux team at http://linux.dell.com.

This is a major step forward for Desktop Linux and making Linux (and specifically Ubuntu) a viable replacement or alternative operating system to Windows Vista.