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Hall, who hasn't used a Windows-based computer in some six or seven years, said that with more Linux applications available, the time may be right for Dell to release such hardware. "Today, with several good Linux desktop distributions like Ubuntu, Red Hat and Novell SUSE, [the tide is] turning -- particularly with people who are a little dissatisfied with Vista and its minimum hardware requirements. I think this would be a good time to revisit this."

Eric S. Raymond, president of The Open Source Initiative and author of The Cathedral and The Bazaar, said in an e-mail that the postings from users on the Dell site is "a sign [that] users are demanding genuine choices. Microsoft's line is doubtless going to be that what we've seen is a tiny band of zealots stuffing the IdeaStorm ballot box," Raymond wrote.

"In truth, I actually considered that possibility myself. But I dismissed it on evidence" that included posts from other users who complained about real-world concerns such as pop-ups and dealing with support personnel in foreign Dell tech-support call centers, he wrote.

"The second-order implications are even more interesting, because I think there's no way that Michael Dell didn't see this coming," Raymond wrote. "His company has been quietly selling Linux machines to business customers for several years -- which means he's got more than enough real-world market data to see where the trends are going. Mr. Dell had to have a pretty strong suspicion that Linux preinstalls were going to show up as a top user demand before the fact -- and yet, he let IdeaStorm happen anyway. This tells me he isn't nearly as nervous about angering Microsoft as he used to be. Something in the balance of power between the world's largest PC vendor and the crew in Redmond has shifted, and not in Redmond's favor. You can bet money on that."

Running Linux on Dell laptops could have another lure, Raymond wrote. "I think one significant problem Dell and Microsoft are facing is just that Vista is too resource-hungry and bloated to run well on sub-$500 machines, which are the highest-volume market segment now. Dell may be arranging itself some maneuvering room to preinstall an [operating system] that won't make its low-end hardware look like crap."

Stephen O'Grady, an analyst at RedMonk in Bath, Maine, said the move could work if Dell sets its expectations appropriately for Linux-equipped laptops. "But people expecting Linux [on laptops] to have the same impact as in the server market [where the operating system is widely used in corporate IT] would be a stretch."