In February when Dell launched IdeaStorm as forum for customers to contribute ideas for product offerings, we received overwhelming feedback that customers wanted Linux on desktops and notebooks.

As part of an overall effort to update our Linux program, today we are announcing a partnership with Canonical to offer Ubuntu on select consumer desktop and notebook products.

Update: These systems will be available in the coming weeks to customers in the United States. Update #2: 5-15: This blog post was erroneously unpublished last night. Apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.

This represents another step in the overall enhancement of our Linux program:

• Since 1999, Dell PowerEdge servers have been available with Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and since 2005 with Novell/SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.
• Dell Precision workstations have shipped for years with the option of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• OptiPlex desktops and Latitude notebooks are certified to run Novell SLED 10
• Dell updated its policy on driver support of new Linux desktop and notebook products to use open source drivers in kernel.org where possible

We recently launched a Linux community board as another way to help our customers to get help they need to augment things we've been doing like supporting Linux mailing lists.

You can also find the IdeaStrom update in Ideas in Action section.

In this video, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth talks about why he started Ubuntu, Linux adoption rate trends, how previous barriers to Linux adoption for mainstream users are improving, and more.

Thanks to all of our customers who  continue to wait for your orders despite the delays. We apologize for the frustration that they have caused all of you. I know that many of you have seen the blog posts about the XPS M1330 delays, but many customers are asking for details behind the Inspiron delays.  I wanted to spend a few minutes to try to address some of the fundamental issues we're dealing with.

Regardless of what product we're talking about, generally speaking there are two things that dictate when we will ship your order: 1) the order date and 2) parts availability. There are other variables that factor into this, but in general, we expect to ship products in the order they were received when we have the components to build your system.

Speaking of components, many of you have asked which ones are delaying your orders. The reason that's not a simple question to answer is that the supply picture changes frequently. Once we are aware that  a component is in short supply and will add time to your estimated ship date, we try to indicate that on the configurator in Dell.com to give you an indication of further potential delays.  Here's an example screenshot here:

To date, color options are the main source of delay on Inspiron notebooks. Basic colors like black are easier to produce. Premium colors and finishes like we use on the Inspiron models introduce complexity into the process, and that's holding things up. Just as Alex mentioned in his post about colors on the M1330, producing smaller quantities is not the issue—it's mainly an issue of scale. We'll continue to work directly with suppliers to ultimately increase our production on color notebooks. Besides scale, we are also focused on maintaining the levels of quality we established when we designed these notebooks. In other words, we're not going to relax our quality standards to ship more products.

While premium colors are the main reason for delay of our Inspiron notebooks, displays are a secondary reason—some screen sizes are in short supply.

As long as we have lots of customers waiting for systems like we do now, we have some tough work ahead of us. I can assure you that people at all levels in many departments across the company are working around the clock to resolve all the issues preventing us from shipping your systems. Beyond that, we have added dedicated sales and support resources in the United States and around the world specifically to address the customer experience issues that these delays cause. We also understand that shipping your system is key, and we'll continue to work to do that.

Thanks again to all of you who continue to wait for your orders. We appreciate your patience and your business.

Since my last post, many of you made it clear that you want us to share more details about what's going on with the XPS M1330. I want to apologize for the frustration that these delays are causing you. I understand that no amount of explanation is a substitute for shipping the system, but hope this helps address some of your concerns.

Right now, we are focused on shipping as many systems as we can. Currently, we have worked through about 10% of our backlog and will focus on improving this going forward. Despite our best efforts, we may not be able to ship some orders before the original estimated ship date we gave you. In those cases, Dell will be contacting affected customers to let them know. Details will vary by region.

When you order a system, the estimated ship date factors in our best currently available information, including the number of orders in front of you and the availability of parts. It should not change unless something impacts one of these factors. If that happens, we will contact you.

As Lionel mentioned in an earlier post, we have found the production ramp more difficult than we expected—let me take a few minutes to explain the process. Before we begin shipping products to customers, we build a sizeable number of units to test our manufacturing process and to help flush out any issues that may impact our ability to build in volume. These test builds are a fraction of what we expect to build at full production. Once we start building a larger number of units, we may see issues that pop up in only one or two of them, but which require larger volumes to reveal themselves.  Since it's hard to tell if the issue is an isolated one or if it will affect a large number of units down the road, we investigate each one thoroughly. When that happens, it slows our build process.  

One example of this is the painting process. Right now, Tuxedo Black is the only color that is consistently meeting our quality standards. That's one reason why some customers are getting their orders before others. The finish on the XPS  M1330 is similar to a custom paint job on a car, but with one additional complexity—on a car, typical viewing occurs from several feet away. With a notebook, the typical viewing range is much closer... sometimes a foot or less. This requires a different level of attention to detail.  Why do I bring that up? There was no problem painting hundreds at a time.  But as we increased the volume, otherwise manageable factors like dust contamination caused our successful yields to decrease.  Adding to the complexity, the Crimson Red and the Pearl White colors require more coats of paint and more touches to create the finished product—that means there is more opportunity for dust contamination.

All this ultimately results in fewer finished parts from the paint line than we expected.  You may have noticed on Dell.com yesterday we discontinued the Pearl White color. The reason is that we are just not able to produce the kind of volumes of high quality product that we need to support demand. It takes about 5 coats of paint to get the appearance we were looking for.
We are working to ship white units that meet our standards to all customers who ordered them, but those may be the last of the units using the current process, as we continue to pursue alternate methods of producing high-quality white units.

Unanticipated part shortages also hold up our ability to ship products. The most obvious issue is one mentioned in earlier posts-the LED backlit LCD display. First off, it's new technology, and that means there are fewer suppliers available. Bright white LEDs provide the backlight for the LCD instead of a fluorescent tube. It results in a brighter display that offers better color reproduction, is thinner and lighter, and draws less power. This relatively limited supply base combined with stronger than anticipated demand-the number of orders has simply exceeded our expectations-has  contributed to the delays. Our vendors are ramping production as quickly as possible, but these displays continue to be in short supply.

We're committed to shipping these systems as quickly as we can. Once again, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business and your continued patience.

There's been some chatter about a Latitude Tablet PC coming from Dell. Check out what Jeff Clarke has to say.

Update: 12/10—I just posted new details about the Latitude XT here. More information coming tomorrow.

Update: 12/11—Glenn just published his post—it features an almost 10-minute vlog discussing the capacitive touch capability and the concept of freestyle computing.

Your feedback on Dell IdeaStorm has been astounding.  Thank you!  We hear your requests for desktops and notebooks with Linux.  We’re crafting product offerings in response, but we’d like a little more direct feedback from you: your preferences, your desires.  We recognize some people prefer notebooks over desktops, high-end models over value models, your favorite Linux distribution, telephone-based support over community-based support, and so on.  We can’t offer everything (all systems, all distributions, all support options), so we’ve crafted a survey (www.dell.com/linuxsurvey) to let you help us prioritize what we should deliver for you.

Taking a few minutes to complete this survey will help us define our forthcoming Linux-based system offerings. We will close the survey on Friday, March 23. From there, we’ll take some time to analyze your feedback and work to provide the platforms and options you choose.

Thanks in advance for your participation. More details soon.

Update:  We're overwhelmed by your responses, and we know the survey server is overloaded too.  We're working on it, and the survey will remain open until March 23, so you'll have plenty of time to make your vote count.