Dell Ships 40,000 Ubuntu PCs

[Mike]

Dell agreed to ship PCs and laptops with the Ubuntu operating system after more than 130,000 people promoted the notion on the company's IdeaStorm web site. It would seem, however, that only a fraction of these zealots were willing to back their votes with cash.

Dell has shipped close to 40,000 systems pre-installed with the Ubuntu flavor of Linux, according to multiple sources. By most accounts, that's a heck of a total for what remains more or less a fringe operating system. Ubuntu fans are urged to hold back their virtual quills of vitriol following that last sentence and remember that the OS trails major desktop and notebook OSes by quite a margin.

David Lord, a spokesman at Dell, declined to discuss the 40,000 figure, saying the company "does not break out" those types of numbers. Lord was, of course, willing to say that, "Adoption has been very good" and the IdeaStorm push where Dell asks customers to promote things they would like to see represents "a two-way street" where Dell hopes users "will vote with their minds and wallets."

The Ubuntu experiment marks the second time Dell has flirted with letting any old customer order a Linux PC off its web site. Grizzled open source warriors will remember CEO Michael Dell telling the 2000 LinuxWorld that "the only thing growing faster than Linux is the number of Linux systems Dell is shipping" after Dell revealed that Red Hat Linux would appear across its entire computer and server line.

Dell quickly gave up on a broad Linux desktop push, citing a lack of demand. More inquisitive types came up with other reasons for Dell's Linux abandonment.

Is 40,000 units over a number of months enough to keep Dell interested?

Your guess is as good as ours. The company sells about 10m machines per quarter.

[#43 fan]

Still, 40,000 computers is quite a bit.
IMO, I hope they keep selling Ubuntu based computers. Its good for competition.

[carl33p]

How much cheaper is a Dell if you take Ubuntu over Vista(basic) or XP?


And, Why am I having difficulty getting everything to work on my Vostro 1400..... maybe I should email Dell and see if they have a pre-built Ubuntu optimized for it.

EDit: Scratch that. Ubuntu forums FTW. Fixed the last two problems I had.

[excuzzzeme]

I have used Ubuntu for quite a while and have no problems with it. I find that Open Office is a better suite than MS Office. It has less eye-candy and simply does what you want, when you want.

Vista? Reminds me of Windows ME. No thanks, I'll take Ubuntu or openSuse over Vista any day!