Dell to Offer Ubuntu 7.04

May 01, 2007

by Lionel Menchaca, Digital Media Manager [ http://direct2dell.com/user/Profile.aspx?UserID=2102 ]

In February when Dell launched IdeaStorm [ http://www.ideastorm.com/ ] as forum for customers to contribute ideas for product offerings, we received overwhelming feedback that customers wanted Linux on desktops and notebooks.

As part of an overall effort to update our Linux program, today we are announcing a partnership with Canonical [ http://www.canonical.com/ ] to offer Ubuntu [ http://www.ubuntu.com/ ] on select consumer desktop and notebook products.

Update: These systems will be available in the coming weeks to customers in the United States. Update #2: 5-15: This blog post was erroneously unpublished last night. Apologies for any inconvenience this has caused..

This represents another step in the overall enhancement of our Linux program:

Since 1999, Dell PowerEdge servers [ http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/servers?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz ] have been available with Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and since 2005 with Novell/SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Dell Precision workstations [ http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/precn_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd ] have shipped for years with the option of Red Hat Enterprise Linux [ http://www.redhat.com/ ]
OptiPlex desktops [ http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/optix_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd ] and Latitude notebooks are certified to run Novell SLED 10 [ http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/ ]
Dell updated its policy on driver support of new Linux desktop and notebook products to use open source drivers in kernel.org where possible

We recently launched a Linux community board [ http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=sw_linux ] as another way to help our customers to get help they need to augment things we've been doing like supporting Linux mailing lists [ http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo ].

You can also find the IdeaStrom update in Ideas in Action [ http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/ideastorm/ideasinaction?c=us&l=en&s=gen ] section.

In this video, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth talks about why he started Ubuntu, Linux adoption rate trends, how previous barriers to Linux adoption for mainstream users are improving, and more.

9:35 AM