More laptop computers preloaded with Ubuntu Linux are coming from Dell Inc. in response to demand from potential customers around the world.

Starting today, Dell will offer Ubuntu Linux 7.10 on its XPS 1330 laptops in France, Germany, Spain and the U.K., the company said on its Direct2Dell blog. U.S. customers will be able to order the machines in “a week or so,” the company said. For customers in Spain, this will be the first time that Dell has offered a pre-loaded computer for sale with Ubuntu Linux. Pricing details for the U.S. machines were not available.

The move to add more Linux-loaded offerings in more countries came from consumer requests on the Direct2Dell Web site, according to the company. The new XPS 1330n laptops include built-in DVD playback.

Dell launched its first three Ubuntu-loaded computers in the U.S.

(Full article ‘Dell offers another Ubuntu Linux laptop’)

SAN FRANCISCO — Oracle Corp. last week said its yearlong push to take on Red Hat Inc. in the Linux market has reaped 1,500 corporate customers for its Unbreakable Linux support program. Most of those customers — well over 1,450 — signed up for the service during the past six months, with “virtually no selling at all,” said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison during a keynote speech at the company’s OpenWorld user conference here. “We did all of this while just building up our Linux sales team,” he said. At a price ranging from about $99 to $2,000 per year, the Unbreakable Linux program provides support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Oracle’s close clone of that operating system, as well as the applications that run on them.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellis

(Full article ‘Oracle Claims Early Wins in Battle With Red Hat’)

Lenovo Group Ltd., the world’s No. 3 PC maker, said today that it will start selling versions of its laptop computers preloaded with Linux software from Novell Inc. instead of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.

The laptops are scheduled to go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year and will be sold to Lenovo’s business customers as well as to consumers.

Lenovo announced its plans at the start of LinuxWorld, an annual conference for IT managers that’s being held in San Francisco this week.

The Linux operating system has been one of the fastest-growing types of software on servers and other kinds of powerful business computers over the past decade.

Last year, Microsoft entered into a business partnership with Novell that includes joint product development on server software.

(Full article ‘Lenovo to sell laptops with Linux’)