Jaslabs: High performance Software

By Justin Silverton

In a recent article here

The new team of leaders at Dell is weighing a request to give customers the option to purchase PCs with the Linux OS, instead of the default Windows, after thousands of users voted for that idea on a company blog.

The idea appeared Friday on a company-hosted blog called Dell Idea Storm. CEO Michael Dell unveiled the blog Feb. 16 as part of his effort to reinvigorate the struggling company. Dell said he hoped to use the blog to collect users’ feedback and improve customer service.

Since then, company executives and department heads have been monitoring the site, paying closest attention to the ideas winning the most votes, Dell spokeswoman Caroline Dietz said on Wednesday.

The most popular threads on Wednesday included demands for Linux-based laptops, consumer PCs that are not pre-loaded with unsolicited applications and requests for Sun Microsystems’ OpenOffice applications instead of Microsoft’s Office suite. Popular requests also included a preference for Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser instead of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and pleas for Dell to stop routing service calls to operators in overseas countries such as India.

The actual posts can be found here

Here is the top story:

“Offer the 3 top free Linux versions for free pre-installation on all Dell PCs.

Offer trade-ins and Linux CDs for older model Dell PCs. Cast your vote for the mini Linux Dell PC and the Universal Education Dell PC, both utilizing free software”