Dell has received more than 100,000 responses in its recent survey, and more than 70 percent of the respondents said they would want a Dell PC with Linux for both home and office use. The Dell announcement of plans to pre-install and support Linux could encourage more widespread use of Linux PCs by small businesses as well as consumers. I am sure this will not amuse Dell’s software partner in Redmond. We are now living in a new world, Dell is struggling for new customers, Macs are all over the place and despite Microsoft’s claims that Windows Vista is selling faster than XP did, Vista is not doing as well as it should have.

Dell says the people have spoken, and they want Linux on Dell hardware. So this week Dell will soon begin offering Linux on select desktop and laptop PCs. Although Dell already offers the Linux open-source operating system (OS) for servers and its Precision workstation line, Linux is not offered as an option for the majority of its PCs. Is this just another sign that Microsoft has lost some favor with one of its biggest customers, that consumers are more eager to try alternatives to Windows, or both?

Dell said it will announce in the coming weeks which Linux distributions or versions will be available, which systems will be offered, and what the details will be for testing and certification. In launching the survey about Linux, Dell said that it can’t offer all options, but that it would focus on higher-priority ones. With Dell selling and supporting Linux, this could have a great effect on a more widespread use of the “open source” operating system and the many free applications available to the platform.

“Quality free and open-source software drastically lowers the cost of new PCs,” Dell wrote in their recent survey, “and helps prevent software piracy. For example, OpenOffice.org, the Microsoft Office alternative, can shave hundreds of dollars off the price of a new PC.” The cost should also be lower as you will not have to pay the “Microsoft tax” by paying for Windows you will never use, when ordering a machine that you want to run Linux on.

If Dell were to offer an easy-to-use distribution of Linux, such as Ubuntu, with its seamless installations and user-friendly configuration options, this would bring plenty of inexperienced computer users into the Linux and open source world. Not a great situation for Microsoft. I can imagine the “chair throwing, and screaming” going on at least one office of a certain executive in Redmond! This could be a gutsy move on Dell’s part.

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