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Dell chooses Ubuntu for Linux PCs

Of the 160.5 million operating-system licences shipped in 2006, Windows accounted for 92 per cent, compared with 4.1 per cent for Mac OS X and 3.8 per cent for Linux, Gillen said. "We're not seeing any breakout momentum for Linux on desktop," he said.

A leg up for Linux
But Canonical believes the time is right.

"The market is ready," Silber said. "We think the combination of the timing, the technology and the partner are aligned to make it happen."

Dell's partnership is a significant endorsement for the up-and-coming Linux support seller. Canonical doesn't yet have the widespread hardware and software partnerships possessed by incumbent Linux power Red Hat and Novell's Suse Linux, but it's working to build them.

The company is starting its business by trying to appeal to users of desktop computers. From there, Canonical chief executive Mark Shuttleworth has said, the company plans to head to the server market, where the real Linux bread and butter can be found.

Cook wouldn't comment on whether Dell plans to offer Ubuntu on its servers as well. "We're looking at Linux across the breadth of our product line. It takes a bit longer sometimes on that side. Stay tuned," he said.

Raven Zachary, an analyst for the market analyst firm The 451 Group, believes that day will arrive.

"I think you will find Dell, over time, also offering Ubuntu across its server product line as Ubuntu grows in popularity in the data centre, due in large part to Canonical's 24-7 support offering and the simplicity of managing one distribution from the developer's desktop to the data centre," Zachary said.

Customers are reporting use of Ubuntu more than IDC had expected, Gillen said.

"It's showing up as well as any traditional non-paid Linux distribution is showing up and starting to rival some paid distributions," according to Gillen. "It's not first-tier, but it's pushing the envelope getting into the first tier."

Canonical wouldn't reveal financial terms of the deal.

"It's a very significant deal for us, in terms of evolution of the company," Silber said. "How big a deal depends, to a large extent, on how many machines are sold. We think that'll be a high number."