14 DAY TRIAL // For those who haven't heard it yet, a while ago Dell made an announcement according to which the company would be releasing desktops and notebook systems with pre-installed Linux as an option. Dell did not make any specifications regarding which Linux distribution(s) Dell machines would have as pre-installed option. Supporters and developers took a guess and claimed that distributions like Novell/SUSE, Red Hat, Fedora, OpenSuSE or Ubuntu are the favorite, but the company did not express a steady choice regarding any of the mentioned distros. Dell officials claimed at that time that there were too many options (see the millions distros on DistroWatch) and it is very hard to simply choose one.
Today Canonical solved the mystery and announced that Dell's new Linux product line will have Ubuntu pre-installed.
"Dell will be announcing a partnership with Canonical to ship pre-loaded Linux models with Ubuntu" stated Jane Silber, Canonical's Chief Operating Officer.
And to answer the question that might have just popped in your mind too, yes, the respective Ubuntu version is 7.04, Feisty Fawn. There were rumors that the 6.06 LTS Ubuntu version might be the chosen one, but considering the fact that Feisty Fawn is the latest, greatest, praised and worshiped distro, I'm sure that Dell made a good choice with it. Siber also mentioned that Canonical and Dell will work together in order to insure that all components are fully-functional. The models shipped by Dell with Ubuntu will not be server models, but rather laptops and desktops.
The reasons why Dell stopped to Ubuntu are not hard to guess, considering the popularity and fame that this distribution enjoys among the developers, fans and common users. Based on Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu can brag with the exact qualities of a nice, modern operating system, qualities like ease of installation, usability or accessibility on the behalf of the common user and also a lot more features that make it a beloved figure in the eyes of its developers.