14 DAY TRIAL // Dell was one of the first big computer systems manufacturers that offered to customers the possibility of a desktop or mobile system featuring not the Microsoft Windows operation system, but a Linux distribution instead. According to a company that provides Linux services and cited by the Web based news site Information Week, Dell will soon enlarge its PC system collection that comes bundled with a Linux distribution.
Dell first introduced a line of computers coming with the Ubuntu Linux distribution in May and they were received very warmly by the consumers and - according to Mark Shuttleworth - one of Ubuntu's creators and co founder of Canonical Inc, Dell is very happy with its Linux computer line.
"What's been announced to date is not the full extent of what we will see over the next couple of weeks and months," Shuttleworth said an interview late Wednesday."There are additional offerings in the pipeline". But Dell's spokesperson Anne Camden declared the the company does not wish to discuss about unreleased prodects. She said however that Dell was pleased with its Linux running computers and she thought that " the bulk of the machines were sold to open-source software enthusiasts, while some first-time Linux users have purchased them as well".
While Canonical is closely working with Dell, its co-founder Mark Shuttleworth said that his company does not have plans for future collaborations with HP or with any other computer systems vendor for selling machines running Ubuntu Linux. He also said that sales of the three computer lines from Dell that run Ubuntu Linux are proceeding according to previous projections of both Dell and Canonical, but he refused to cite statistics.
While Dell has three computer lines running only Ubuntu Linux, the other three top computer makers and vendors Lenovo Group Ltd, Acer Inc and Toshiba Corp, are having a more reserved attitude about Linux in general and prefer to stick to the Microsoft Windows operating system for the time being.