Dell Is Shipping Systems with Ubuntu Pre-installed in China - ... due to the high number of requests from the customers

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Dell started offering Ubuntu 7.10 on the Inspiron 530n desktop to customers in China yesterday, because of the high number of requests from the clients. Unfortunately, DVD playback will not be supported on Ubuntu 7.10, in China.

It seems that Dell is aiming to offer its computers with Ubuntu
pre-installed all over the globe. They started shipping Ubuntu at first in the United States, the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and last month in Canada and Latin America. The company's customers located in China can call Dell for basic installation and configuration help, in case they need it. Besides, Canonical will offer one-year tech support.

Dell started providing systems with Linux distributions pre-installed in China, last year, when it introduced Optiplex 330 and 755 with SUSE Linux Desktop 10. Now, Dell's customers from China will enjoy the following features offered by Ubuntu 7.10:

• Cool 3-D visual effects that make your system fun to use;
• An easier desktop search engine to find documents or applications;
• Ability to quickly switch between users and easily share a system with family members;
• Pre-installation of Flash for a better web experience (Added by Dell);
• Improved recovery options with a full factory restore from hard drive and the ability to burn the system-specific recovery image to DVD media right from the user's desktop (Dell-developed as well);