Dell to offer more Linux PCs, Ubuntu's creator says

Mark Shuttleworth, who created the Ubuntu version of Linux and founded Canonical to provide support for it, said that Dell is happy with the demand it has seen for Linux PCs, which Dell introduced in May.

Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard, now offers five consumer PCs that run Ubuntu Linux.

"What's been announced to date is not the full extent of what we will see over the next couple of weeks and months," Shuttleworth said this week in an interview. "There are additional offerings in the pipeline."

Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden declined comment, saying the company does not discuss products in the pipeline. She added that Dell has been pleased with customer response to its Linux PCs.

The Linux OS is seen as the biggest threat to Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Companies like Shuttleworth's privately held Canonical, as well as Red Hat and Novell, make money by selling standardized versions of Linux programs and support contracts to service them.

Shuttleworth said his company is not in discussions with HP or any of the other top five PC makers to introduce machines equipped with Ubuntu. The other three top PC makers are Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba.