Analysis -- Officially, Dell Inc. hasn't said a word yet about which Linux it will be preloading on its desktops and laptops. Several sources within Dell, however, have told DesktopLinux.com that Dell's desktop Linux pick is going to be Ubuntu.

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While unable to confirm this through official Dell channels, we have heard the same story now from several internal Dell sources. They tell us that the Austin, Texas, computer giant will be preinstalling the newly released Ubuntu 7.04. These systems will be released in late May 2007.

According to our sources, Ubuntu will be released on a Dell e-series "Essential" Dimension desktop, an XPS desktop, and an e-series Inspiron laptop.

The e-series systems are budget-priced PCs that start at $408 without a monitor. The base systems come with 512MB of RAM and a 160GB SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drive. It appears that Dell will only be offering Ubuntu on one of the two systems in this family. The E521 is powered by an AMD Sempron 3400+ chip and uses a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU (graphics processor unit) for graphics. The alternative, the E520, uses an Intel 2.8GHz Celeron D processor.

There are four XPS models, which are meant for home users. Each includes a 19-inch flat-panel monitor. Presuming that Dell delivers Ubuntu on the least expensive of these systems, the XPS 410, the base system would cost $899. It comes with an Intel 1.8GHz, Core 2 Duo Processor E4300, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB SATA hard drive, and a 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache for graphics.

Finally, for the laptop, there are three e-series Inspiron notebooks with prices ranging from $899 to $1,149. Unlike the other systems, we were unable to narrow down which is the most likely to be sold with Ubuntu.

All of this line can run with up to an Intel 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo Processor T7400. On RAM, the systems range from 512MB to 1GB. All can be upgraded to 2GB of RAM. Their primary difference is in their screen size. The E1405, which is designed for business travelers, has a 14.1-inch WXGA+ display. The E1705, dubbed by Dell as the Entertainment Powerhouse, has a 17-inch wide-screen display.

That Dell chose Ubuntu wasn't much of a surprise, since Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell had already announced that he is running that distribution on his home laptop. Michael Dell is currently using Ubuntu 7.04 on an extremely well-equipped Dell Precision M90. His system uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 Processor, which runs at 2.33GHz and comes with a 4MB cache. It also comes with 4GB of DDR2 (double-data-rate) 667MHz DRAM, a 17-inch WXGA+ wide-screen LCD, a 160GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive, a 8X DVD +/- RW optical drive, and a NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 512M graphics card.

Sources also indicated that Dell has decided to go with Ubuntu because a large number of people who answered its Linux desktop survey indicated that they wanted Ubuntu. While Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, recently said he can't comment on whether or not his company has been talking with Dell, sources close to the company indicate that Dell and Canonical have been having talks for several months now about Ubuntu running on Dell's computers.

sounds`damn cool I would like linux and win pre installed on my XPS damnit

its true here the link

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=6005&l=en&s=eep&~ck=anavml

Ubuntu Rocks! I'm using it at home, and working towards moving our office to it.

Distilled1 - Why Linux & win? You really can live without windows. OK it's not a slam dunk cuz windows is everywhere, but it can be done.

You can't live without windows if you use professional audio/MIDI software such as Logic, Cubase, Sonar, Ableton Live, Pro Tools etc.

None of this runs on Linux and the Linux alternatives are well behind the times - Audacity, Ardour, Rosegarden, etc. all very feature lacking. All the top plugin companies too.

Linux also does not detect many audio interfaces or wifi systems, even using ndiswrapper.

Linux is a great o/s for surfing the web and email if your hardware is supported.Audacity and GIMP are great for free, but don't exactly match up to professional paid software.

And then, there are so many linuxes, how do you choose? Ubuntu is popular but not necessarily th ebest choice, depending on your needs.

windows or mac for the above. But mac also has it's limitations but can at least run windows effectively under bootcamp, much better than wine under linux.

btw - I am not anti-linux - I have Kubuntu installed under a partition on my external hard drive and it has saved me when windows crashed. But I am being realistic when I say, in spite of it's strengths, for multimedia audio/visual production, much has to be done before I can convert fully.

As for the stuff that absolutely *requires* windows -- I can personally vouch for VMWare running XP very nicely under Ubuntu Linux.

As for audio / video support -- they're a little behind on some things due to the fact that hardware manufacturers are not obligated to cooperate with anyone.

Which is why Dell, among other corporations, are putting pressure on the more anal companies to get them to play ball.

Now don't get me wrong -- I hate Dell. I hate the fact that they do foreign outsourcing. Dell sucks, IMHO. But -- the fact that they are even capable of showing support for Linux gives me hope that enough people at that corporation have enough morals and ethics to start slowly turning things around for the better.

Just as I hate Apple. I hate their misleading advertising. But the fact that OSX is BSD based and they support Intel now also shows that tiny ray of hope that they are capable of cooperating and seeing points of view that previously they were blind to.

-Dave

It's a catch 22 with stuff like this at the moment, software and hardware companies won't be as keen to develop drivers (or release details about their hardware so others can) for Linux until more people use it, and people won't use it until there is more support for it. This is a big move for Dell and I'm glad to see it, I would imagine it would save them (and their customers) some money on Windows licenses too.