To be honest I suspect this is just an honest blunder by a less informed dell employee - How many times have you gotten all the facts, called support for something and they tell you it isn't the case until you show them they are being idiots - A few people here seem to be pretty paranoid, I don't think Dell is out to undermine Linux or open source - I suspect there may be a bit of pressure from Microsoft to not promote this too much - But they do have an ad for Ubuntu on their front page (on the bit which changes every time you refresh the page) - Given how many people has read this thread and seen it on digg, I suspect they will say that it was a mistake. Critisism is good but remember Dell has been only offering Ubuntu for a short while and low level employees are sometimes easily confused.