Dell recently announced that it will expand support for Linux further than servers and the Precision workstation line.  The popular PC maker's first step will be to offer Linux pre-installed on both notebooks and desktops, Dell said in an online statement.

Dell asked for customer input in February on the company's IdeaStorm web site.  More than 100,000 responses were submitted to Dell, with more than 70 percent of respondents wanting some sort of pre-installed Linux product from Dell.

It may also take Dell a long time to get potential support issues sorted out before the Dell products enter the PC and workstation markets.  Linux users are now curious to see which version(s) of Linux will be installed on future products.  Users are more interested in kernel level and open driver support instead of particular Linux distributions, according to Dell.

Dell already has working relationships with Novell and Red Hat, both of which create popular Linux operating systems.  But other popular Linux alternatives include Ubuntu, Slackware, Debian and Lindows.

The company plans on asking for more user input regarding Linux and open source technologies.  Dell has had to rethink business plans due to increased competition with competitors such as Hewlett-Packard.