Dell did what more corporations need to do, ask their customers what they want.

Dell put up a site IdeaStorm to collect user suggestions and opinion and got overwelming votes for pre-installed Linux machines. The votes for Linux were around 85,000 and votes for pre-installed open source software, like Open Office, on Windows was around 55,000. I am quoting Ars Technica on the totals.

My biggest argument with Dell, or any computer mfg for that matter, has always been the garbage software and demos pre-installed on these machines along with the tweaks to Windows. I generally build my own systems, but when I work on other people's machines I find tons of crap they never use and spend a good deal of time removing it. Well, seems a lot of people agree with me, a lot more than I would have guessed.

I am not a big fan of Dell, but their business level machines are ok and they do a decent job of supporting them, but I think asking their customers what they want instead of letting other companies dictate what you will get or dumping what Dell thinks you want on a machine is a great idea and a long time coming. I'd like to see other industries follow in their footsteps, game developers being one.

I am still amazed at the numbers. I am glad to see Microsoft getting some serious competition.