Could a common installer be the answer for desktop Linux?

I have been saying this for years, but many Linux people also feel that this same idea would be the doom of a the Linux desktop as well. OK, newsflash - it will happen eventually.

There’s no mistaking that buying desktop hardware for use with Linux (Overview, Articles, Company) is more difficult than buying Windows PCs. Even if you manage to avoid the “Microsoft tax” and buy a system without Windows preinstalled, you still have the additional hurdle of getting your Linux of choice onto it.

As I discussed last week, Dell (Profile, Products, Articles) is reluctant to back any particular desktop Linux distribution. Instead, Windows-free PCs ship from Dell preinstalled with a version of DOS. They might as well come with blank hard drives; your first step to getting up and running with a Linux desktop will be wiping the disk and installing the OS manually. Source: InfoWorld

[tags]dell,dos,common installer,linux installer,windows-free pcs[/tags]