Dell announces support plans for Linux machines

While the exact details concerning timing and availability of Dell's Ubuntu-based hardware offerings are still emerging, an entry yesterday on their Direct2Dell blog outlined plans for support of the new OS.  In particular, Dell will be launching a new wiki for users on their linux.dell.com website

"that gives technical details of the supported systems, information on the device drivers used for system peripherals, details of our Ubuntu factory-installation, and information on the problems we found during our testing, with their fixes/workarounds."

The blog entry also outlined the software to be included on the machines.  Most notably, in addition to the default Ubuntu 7.04 packages, only open-source drivers would be used wherever possible.  Full wireless support (though with restricted drivers) would also be built in.  Better yet, it appears that Dell is finally giving manufacturers the push they need to begin developing open source drivers for third-party hardware:

"We're offering the hardware options on each system that have the most mature and stable Linux driver support. These hardware options have been thoroughly tested by the Linux team here at Dell...For hardware options not offered with this release, we are working with the vendors of those devices to improve the maturity and stability of their associated Linux drivers. While this may not happen overnight, we do expect to have a broader range of hardware support with Linux over time."

Unfortunately, proprietary codecs for multimedia files would not be included to avoid any legal hassles (Automatix anyone?).

As has been repeatedly noted in this column, this is precisely the sort of OEM support required to make Linux really viable for a broad implementation in educational settings.  Improved driver support, increased familiarity among a wide range of users, and a growing support community can all push Linux into the mainstream, even if you choose not to buy a Dell preloaded with Ubuntu (this may not be an option for their public sector users for a while anyway, but we're certainly headed in the right direction).