Source: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/05/07/dell-linux-ubuntu-tech-cz_dl_0507dell.html

[…]many of the people who embrace Linux–the open source operating system that is maintained and supported by a community of volunteers–are very particular about the kind of Linux they want to hug. And Dell’s decision to work with Microsoft and Novell to promote Novell’s version of Linux is not going to go over well.

Microsoft and Novell last year started working together to make their software programs interact more smoothly. Microsoft even agreed to help sell Novell’s version of Linux. The idea was to help customers who want to use both Windows and Linux.

And importantly, Microsoft and Novell also agreed not to sue each other over intellectual property.

Linux fans went nuts. Why? Because they hate Microsoft. They viewed the deal as a way for Microsoft to assert that Linux violated some Microsoft patents. Novell, by going along, was collaborating with the enemy, they said.

[…]

Recently, Linux supporters swarmed Dell after the company put up a Web site called IdeaStorm asking for suggestions. Like teenage girls voting for Sanjaya on American Idol, thousands of Linux fans wrote to Dell and “voted” for PCs loaded with Linux, making this the No. 1 request on IdeaStorm.

Dell responded by announcing it would sell PCs bearing a version of Linux called Ubuntu. It’s not clear yet how many customers will actually buy these machines.

Mr. Lyons doesn’t seem to understand free software, or open source, and he doesn’t understand Linux. Here are the statements that declare so:

Microsoft and Novell last year started working together to make their software programs interact more smoothly. Microsoft even agreed to help sell Novell’s version of Linux. The idea was to help customers who want to use both Windows and Linux.

First let’s dispense with the bullshit. Make their software interact more smoothly, agreed to help sell Novell’s version of Linux, and help customers who want to use both Windows and Linux.

Crap, crap, and crap. We can completely disregard the first statement - it means nothing. Next, Microsoft agreed to help sell a version of an open source operating system, interesting - and crap. Finally, Microsoft would also like to help customers who want to use both Windows and Linux! No, it wants to own the software that customers run, even software it didn’t develop or have rights to. This is what you - the reader in the know - would call “cornering the market.”

And now for the meat.

And importantly, Microsoft and Novell also agreed not to sue each other over intellectual property.

No, Microsoft agreed not to sue you for operating under terms and conditions of the GPL license that SUSE Linux was originally released under. Fantastic!

This is the what Steve Ballmer says of the deal to which Mr. Lyons refers (source: http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=7376)

“Novell pays us some money for the right to tell customers that anybody who uses SUSE Linux is appropriately covered. This is important to us, because we believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability.”
[…]
“Only customers that use SUSE have paid properly for intellectual property from Microsoft. We are willing to do a deal with Red Hat and other Linux distributors.”

Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Lyons don’t seem to see eye to eye here. On the one hand, Mr. Lyons claims that Microsoft just wants to help you, to massage your balls a little and really get you feeling all nice and cudly. Forget about intellectual property, Microsoft doesn’t care about intellectual property. It just wants to help Windows users and Linux users get along.

Of course on the other hand Mr. Ballmer claims that if you use Linux, you are using the intellectual property of, well, him, and if you violate his rights, he was paid a lot of cash not to sue you, under certain circumstances (like if you run SUSE).

The bottom line with regard to Dell is that if it puts Ubuntu on laptops, it is putting free software on them, and free software advocates get the added bonus of not having to wipe the hard drive clean and do it themselves.