Dell desktops loaded with Ubuntu Linux will cost US$50 less than Microsoft Windows-based systems but it is still unclear if and when they will be available in Australia.
Dell is trying a second time to sell personal computers with Linux preinstalled, this time using the up-and-coming Ubuntu version of the open-source operating system.
Dell said last week that in addition to selling PCs based on Ubuntu Linux, it will also offer systems designed for the SMB market -- outside the US.
Thousands of Dell users have contacted a user forum to call for PCs to be shipped with a Linux operating system and the OpenOffice application suite.
Dell may be forced to sell PCs pre-loaded with Linux distribution Ubuntu internationaly after more than 20,000 people signed a petition on the company's user forum.
We take one of Intel's new 34nm SSD drives for a spin and find it a worthy hard disk replacement, delivering massive speed jumps when loading software. But watch out for a penalty when writing data.
So, it seems the WOW -- for Microsoft's Windows Vista -- is not now, but sometime in the future, maybe.
Cheap PCs with a Linux operating system seem to have hit the users' sweet spots, with taking the plunge into the alternate OS not nearly as hard as users had thought.
It's not easy building a new version of Linux and establishing a large following. But with the Ubuntu project, one team of programmers has managed to do just that.
IT remains a lively, exciting and suprising place. That makes predictions particularly foolish, but here are some picks for the winners and losers of the next twelve months.
Ubuntu is very user-friendly but not right for everyone. Oddly, both casual and advanced users will find this operating system wonderful, while day-to-day users may rail against Ubuntu's incompatibility with certain popular software applications.
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