You missed the obvious context. Dell and I were referring to distro zealots, those who push their preferred distro over all others, and don't like to see the others gain ground. If you'd read the article, you'd see Dell likes Linux, but these zealots make it hard for him to choose a distro to put on Dell boxes.
How could you blame him, when the best they have to offer is pennies on the dollar
They don't have to offer him anything. In fact, he gets to sell his hardware while ignoring Microsoft's complex OEM license. He can slap as many copies of Linux as he wants on his hardware, and he doesn't even have to do the accounting to Microsoft.
Dell got very rich and very famous selling computers that run Windows. He knows most of the Linux crowd builds their own boxes and despise the future (DRM). Obviously based onhis actions he cares little for their supposed plight, nor should he.