“In a series of announcements, Dell said it had taken an equity
stake in Red Hat, a leading supplier of Linux software, and was now
offering to install Linux on a number of its computers. Dell is the
world’s No. 1 direct supplier of personal computers.
“Dell said it was now offering factory installation of Linux
software as an option on selected server and workstation personal
computers (PCs). Servers are computers used to manage networks of
other PCs. Workstations are powerful PCs used by researchers and
designers on data-intensive tasks.
“In a further endorsement of Linux, Dell said it had signed up a
new corporate customer — clothing retailer Burlington Coat Factory
Warehouse Corp. — to buy 1,250 desktop PCs running Linux as its
operating system software.”