Celebrate the good news – Dell will be selling selected consumer desktops and laptops in the US with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. Ubuntu Linux does of course include an OpenOffice.org variant.

So how has Dell managed to overcome the two previous showstoppers: a lack of formal support; and provision of patent indemnity? Chris Kenyon, Ubuntu’s director of business development, gave a hint to the BBC about the support angle: “For us it is a strong endorsement of Ubuntu and the unique support model we provide”. The BBC comments “Firms like Canonical make money by providing software support for users of the operating system.”

But what about the patent indemnity? has Ubuntu’s millionaire founder, Mark Shuttleworth, provided financial guarantees? or has Dell finally seen this ‘issue’ for the piece of nonsense it is?

For OpenOffice.org, the big question remains. Does Dell see Linux users as a different kind of beast from MS-Windows users? If not, the prospects suddenly look brighter for OpenOffice.org on Dell’s MS-Windows PCs too.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 6:42 am and is filed under OpenOffice.org. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.