You forgot to mention that the ASUS eeePC had this feature already and dell copied the concept.

That's great. I love the idea. Unfortunately, in my opinion they are still failing on the laptop and desktop side. I purchased one of the first Dell's available with Ubuntu, and I am happy with it. I am now preparing to purchase a new laptop to replace my Inspirion 9300, and they only offer Linux on a few models. None of them are larger than 15", and not overly powerful in my opinion. The same goes for HP and Lenovo. When are they going to learn that Linux users tend to be power users, and want big powerful machines?

Several members of another team purchased XPS laptops, with nice 17" screens and tons of power. They came with Vista, but 3/4 of the team has put Ubuntu or Fedora on them, with no problems. All hardware works fine. So why won't Dell (and other) sell these without Windows? They work, and probably require much less support than Windows users do.

To build the cheapest netbook without additional OS ,more secure,with long lasting batteries will be the next challenge.

Recently our budget to equip 28% of 8400 users with newer laptops was approved. Since we're almost finished with our windows to linux migration, we were going to purchase high horsepower pc's but they only come with vista preinstalled. So we're going to save the money from the new laptop purchase by repurposing the 2 year old laptops, use linux on them and wait to see which vendor preinstalls linux. Else we're really in no hurry.

@_xISO ... so you are looking to purchase 2000+ machines and you didn't just call DELL and ask for the machine you wanted with Linux installed? (I can't see why they wouldn't try to help close the deal)

I hear it is a TI OMAP processor, like in a smart phone, running linux. It can run for a week or more on the laptop battery. So you get the always on, instant startup of a smart phone, with a full size keyboard and screen and a relatively huge battery (compared to a phone). It has enough power for email, web and viewing and minor editing office docs. When you need full power, you boot your main processor. This is not a separate partition for linux that runs on the laptop processor.

The same goes for HP and Lenovo. When are they going to learn that Linux users tend to be power users, and want big powerful machines?

I have a Dell notebook, and it's lasted for a year and a half so
far with no hardware issues. I've known people who've had Dell
systems that have worked fine for 5-10 years. So, to imply that
Dell sells nothing but crappy computers is pretty unfair. Almost
every company has systems that end up breaking sooner than expected.
That's what warranties are for.
That said, it makes no sense why physical upgrades to a
Mac cost so much. Sure, some of the hardware is different
than what's in a PC, but there shouldn't be enough of a difference
to merit price gouging.

now it's time to create a windows which would be plug in and play no need to wait until it boot up completely.

i would definitely go for one as it comes with great OS i personally like Linux for it's simplicity and security.

By the way - Latitude ON still hasn't happened. It was promised in late 2008 and is the only reason i bought an E4300. The only response i've gotten from my Dell salesperson is "I don't know what that is." some months later. Seriously. At this point it seems Dell intentionally misled, maybe to get marketshare from Splashtop? Don't know, don't care anymore - just hoping for a class action.