At 2 PM PST, Dell will start selling desktops and laptops with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.  I never actually thought I’d see this day to be honest.  Sure, Linux is more than ready for the desktop, but not quite ready for me to install it for Mom.  Still, this is huge and must have caused some serious riffs with the folks in Redmond.  Though I’ve used Linux on servers since late 1998, I’ve only been using it on my desktop for the past couple of years and never once thought of putting it on a laptop because if the lack of quality open source drivers for wireless cards.  That all changed with the release of Ubuntu 7.04, Feisty Fawn.  Prior to relocating to Colorado Springs, I purchased a laptop with Windows Vista Premium on it for the road trip and found that the laptop was not ready for Vista.  The drivers for the screen, keyboard and wireless card never worked properly and it was only out of a troubleshooting session that I decided to install Linux to see if the blank screen was the fault of the OS. 

Not only did Ubuntu install beautifully, but it recognized my wireless card and I only had to put in my WPA key to make it work.  Hibernation also works incredibly well whereas if I did that in Vista, I’d have to start in safe mode and reboot.   I’m incredibly excited about Dell’s move and it kills me to not buy one today to support the cause and reward a company for finally getting it.  But I don’t think the boss (Amy) really cares about the FOSS movement so it will have to wait for a few days.  Ok, weeks.  You’re right honey, years.