FOSSwire

Recently, many larger OEM system builders have started offering a selection of their models with Linux distributions pre-installed. Really big names such as Dell and Lenovo have offered this service.

Unfortunately, DesktopLinux.com reports that Lenovo have pulled out and will no longer offer Linux pre-installs on any of their home-oriented systems.

Lenovo does offer four high-end ThinkStation workstation models without any commercial operating system software, but all of its other systems now carry the "Microsoft Tax," it appears. That is, in order to purchase one of the systems, you have to pay for a Microsoft Windows operating system license.

Lenovo's executive director of external communications, Ray Gorman, denied in vague terms that the current situation marks a strategic shift, though he did admit the company is "refining its Linux strategy." He added, "Lenovo is not abandoning its commitment to choice of operating system, and actually is increasing the role of the Linux operating system in Lenovo's product portfolio."

What they will continue with, however, is offering Linux on a new line of 'netbooks', subcompact notebooks similar to the ubiquitous ASUS Eee PC.

This new netbook form factor will clearly be an important vector for desktop Linux to get to the masses, but this does potentially mean that other manufacturers will follow suit; dropping desktop Linux on traditional desktop and notebook systems to focus on netbooks.

Is it necessary to be pushing desktop Linux to 'real' machines with traditional desktop distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora and the like? Or should we just be glad as a community that the netbook phenomenon will get Linux greater exposure, even if it is only for more cut-down and lightweight systems?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

[via Linux.com, Google Alerts] [image source]

The Inquirer is reporting that in the UK, 2.8% of PCs are now preinstalled with Linux. That figure has multiplied more than 28 times since January 2007.

The number of machines shipped with Linux preloaded on them has multiplied a whopping 28 times since Microsoft launched its Vista operating system in January 2007.

Sounds impressive, but Linux was starting from a rather small base in traditional sales channels: of all PCs sold in the UK last January through indirect channels, a feeble 0.1 per cent had Linux preloaded, according to numbers given to us by market research firm Context.

The article hints quite strongly towards public dissatisfaction at Windows Vista being a factor. Personally I doubt that Vista has much to do with this, as I think it more likely those consumers would 'downgrade' to XP.

Personally, I am inclined to believe that much of this rise can be attributed to machines like Asus' Eee PC, i.e. cut-down compact laptops running customised Linux distros.

While some larger OEM vendors are now shipping Linux on selected desktop machines (including big names like Dell), I would imagine most of this statistic would be on novel computing platforms, as opposed to the humble desktop.

So how far can desktop Linux go? Is it possible to get relatively widespread desktop usage?

The difficulty is convincing an average user to make a conscious choice away from Windows, to something that have no familiarity with. Unless you can demonstrate extremely attractive benefits of an alternative, most people won't bother to investigate. Hence, no demand and no supply.

[via Slashdot]

Eee PC image licensed under CC BY 3.0, source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ASUS_Eee_White_Alt-small.png