Almost exactly one year ago, I made the suggestion to vote with our wallets in the wake of Dell's long-awaited decision to offer ready-configured GNU/Linux systems alongside the usual panoply of Windows systems. What follows is a short report on my own experiences of putting my money where my mouth is.

The first thing that struck me when buying a couple of systems – a desktop and laptop – was that after you've entered the Dell.co.uk site (the one I used), finding the GNU/Linux systems is not exactly easy. If you look hard, there is an option on the desktops page in the selection box for “Open-Source (Ubuntu) Desktops”, and something similar for laptops. However, the words “GNU” or “Linux” are nowhere to be found on the page (although “Linux” does appear in a drop-down menu at the top), so unless you know already that this wacky-sounding Ubuntu is indeed GNU/Linux, you may well be put off.

The equivalent pages for Dell.com are even worse: there is no option to select “Open-Source (Ubuntu) Laptops”; instead, “Open Source PCs” are placed literally as the last option on the page, after “Windows Vista” and “Still looking for Windows XP?” By contrast, the very first thing that you meet on practically every page is “Dell recommends Windows Vista Home Premium.”

Clearly, then, Dell is still very timorous about this weirdo GNU/Linux stuff, and remains in thrall to its masters in Redmond.

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