As Dell and Acer Duke it Out, Their Open Source Stances Matter

“Acer ships its Aspire One netbooks in both Windows and Linux
versions. Meanwhile, Dell has a new line of netbooks out, which are
available with either Windows or Ubuntu. Dell would like to have
the same kind of success that Acer has had in the netbook arena,
but that may take time, and Dell is suffering from a punishing
business hardware buying environment.

“Dell has recently launched an effort to ship computers to
buyers in the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market,
pre-loaded with free, open source software. The effort is dubbed
“SMB in-a-box.” Meanwhile, Acer seems to be putting more focus on
selling Windows-based laptops and netbooks than on Linux-based
ones, although the company does have plans to ship Android netbooks
starting in the third quarter.”

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