Dell Linux vs. Windows Netbook Return Rate "Non-Issue"

Netbooks with Linux are in no way being returned more often than those with Windows -- at least not those from Dell. This according to Todd Finch, senior product marketing manager at the world's second largest PC provider, at OpenSource World in San Francisco. Finch described Microsoft's claim that consumers returned Linux netbooks at a rate four to five times that of Windows as "making something of nothing."

Devices might have been returned not for technical reasons, said Finch, but because consumers realized that they bought the low-priced machines without the expected Windows. Taking that into account, Finch doesn't "see a significant difference" in the return rate and is "quite pleased with the stability and technical soundness of the Linux machines."

Dell currently offers three of their systems pre-installed with versions of Ubuntu: the Mini 10v Atom netbook, the Inspiron 15n laptop and the XPS M1330n mobile workstation with Core 2 Duo processor.