[free_for_now]

A Linux machine from a top name vendor would be very attractive to many people who have been intrigued by the idea of a LInux machine but are a little reluctant to install it on their main machine. A Dell Dimension WITH Vista OS is selling for $359. If most of the OS price were cut the pricing for a baseline system that is very capable of handling basic Internet tasks gets extremely cheap. When the old system my wife was using for email and web-browsing kicked the bucket, I bought an el cheapo used machine on ebay ($75) and was going to install Linux. I ran into some problems though and ended up loading XP using the license from the dead machine. I still may change it over. Anyhow, a brand new system with a Linux install would probably be faster than a similarly configured Windows machine and also more stable and virus-resistant. As people get increasingly computer-savvy, the fear of switching to something like Linux (especially since I am sure Dell would set things up with a user-friendly interface) will diminish. If Dell were to go this way I would take a close look at Dell stock, as I think it would be a winner in the long run.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

I think it would definately get peoples' attention.

Especially considering what was said a while back regarding Dell and another OS.

It'd be shades of "one way or another, dell ended up with another OS".