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The PC maker said it received more than 100,000 customer requests for Linux in a "suggestion box" posted on Dell's Web site less than three weeks ago.

"We are listening to what customers are saying about Linux and taking it into consideration," said Dell spokesman David Lord. "We are going forward. Let's say, 'Certainly stay tuned."'

Linux is an open-source operating system that is generally available for free and can be used to run most computers, including Dell's PCs.

Dell does not break out how much it charges for Windows when it calculates the cost of a computer system, but a basic upgrade version of the software generally retails for $99.

The only operating system that Dell currently offers on its PCs is Windows, with one exception, Lord said. It sells high-end Linux desktops designed specifically for use in oil and gas exploration, he said.

Making Linux available on other Dell PCs has been the top request since the Web site was launched on February 16, according to data posted on the site, as of Tuesday evening.

The second most popular request was that Dell offer another popular free software title, OpenOffice, which competes with Microsoft Office programs including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

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This means that if IBM software programs turn out to be incompatible with Oracle Enterprise Linux, then it will be up to Oracle -- and not IBM -- to resolve the issue, said IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon.

Oracle, which started selling Linux in October, has said its product is identical to one from Red Hat Inc. (NYSE:RHT - news), the No. 1 vendor of the popular open-source operating system, and will seamlessly run software written for the Red Hat system.

But financial and industry analysts have said that software buyers want outside assurances to back up that claim before they will switch to Oracle.

IBM may one day support Oracle Linux. "We are going to wait and see if there is traction in the marketplace," McMahon said. "If clients want it (Oracle), then we will support it."

IBM guarantees its products will work with Red Hat's version of Linux.

"What Red Hat is selling to the customer is peace of mind. Oracle cannot do that because it is unable to certify comparability," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research.

Red Hat provides such a guarantee in the form of certifications from the makers of some 2,755 business software packages, which say that their products are completely compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined to say if any software makers have certified that their products are compatible with Oracle Enterprise Linux.

She wouldn't say how Oracle would respond if its Linux customers were to have problems using other software programs on the operating system.

Linux is an operating system, or the basic group of software programs that run any computer. Other software that is loaded onto that computer must be compatible with that operating system for it to work properly.

Analysts say the compatibility certifications from other software makers rank among Red Hat's key selling points.

The certifications from IBM are important because it sells widely used programs that companies use to run large computer networks. Those titles include the DB2 database, Tivoli software for managing computer networks and Websphere middleware.

Oracle has declined to say how many customers have purchased its new Linux product since its launch in October, and it has yet to announce any customer wins.

Red Hat said it added more than 12,000 customers in its third fiscal quarter, but it does not disclose its total number of customers.

www.reuters.com

At first glance the Wizpy doesn't look very different from other multimedia players on the market: A 1.7-inch organic light-emitting diode color screen occupies the top half of the front of the Wizpy and the lower half has a keypad. Within, there is software to play music in Ogg, MP3, and Windows Media Audio formats, and to show XviD and MPEG4 video files and JPEG images. It can also record sound to MP3 files and display text files, and has an FM radio.

But the Wizpy's flash memory hides another feature that differentiates it from other media players: a bootable version of Linux.

Linux and More

The operating system doesn't have to be installed on the computer, but runs straight from the Wizpy.

"The installation operation is... a high barrier of entry for users to use Linux. So we came up with this device," said Koichi Yano, president and CEO of Turbolinux.

To the computer, the Wizpy appears to be a bootable USB CD-ROM or hard drive, which means most computers will boot the Linux OS without any fuss, said Turbolinux.

For some PCs--the company estimates about a quarter of those it has tested so far--users will either have to insert a supplied CD-ROM into the computer, which will divert the boot-up sequence to the Wizpy, or make a change in the computer's BIOS settings so the PC looks to a USB-connected device for an operating system before its own hard drive. The device should work with all PCs, and on newer models of Apple's
Macintosh that are based in Intel chips, said Yano.

The Wizpy contains an updatable version of Turbolinux's own operating system, based on Linux kernel 2.6.19, the Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, Skype, CD and DVD ripping software, Turbo Media Player, RealPlayer 10, a Flash player, OpenOffice 2.1, Adobe Acrobat reader, some Ricoh fonts, and Justsystem's ATOK Japanese input system.

Its Own Little World

The OS and installed software occupies about 1GB of memory, so that leaves either 1GB or 3GB left for storing files or multimedia, depending on the model. User files can be stored in either a media folder that is accessible from the host PC when the Wizpy is connected as removable storage, or a documents folder that is only accessible from within the Linux OS on the device.

It's not possible to access files stored on the host machine's hard drive when it is booted from the Wizpy. This is intended to reassure people who lend their PCs to Wizpy owners: they will be able to do so knowing that the Wizpy user cannot ferret around in their files, a company official said.

The device will be able to connect to a network through the host PC and also access connected peripherals, if they are supported. Because Linux support for some audio hardware is patchy, the Wizpy uses its own audio output system: Users can plug speakers into the device's headphones socket to hear system sounds.

The Wizpy should start appearing outside of Japan from April, priced in the same way as in Japan, where it is aligned with local iPod prices, said Yano.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
www.pcworld.com