Dell has finally chosen a Linux distribution to offer on its desktop and laptop machines. Following news that Michael Dell was running Ubuntu on his personal laptop, the company has followed suit and from late May Dell machines will ship with Ubuntu 7.04 as an option.

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There's no official word from Dell, but several sources within the box-shifter have been talking to desktoplinux.com.

Machines will be available from $408 for an e-series box without a monitor. Four XPS machines will also have the option of pre-installed Linux, as will three e-series laptops.

The announcement followed a survey of 100,000 people which found a huge majority in favour of offering Linux. Open source fanboys have long been irritated by the difficulty of buying a machine without Windows pre-installed. ®

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