Dell has caught up to the Ubuntu release machine, adding the latest version of the operating system as a standard option with Linux-friendly laptop and desktop.

Customers in the US can now purchase select Dell kit with Ubuntu 7.10 - aka Gutsy Gibbon for the Teletubbies fans out there. The OS will make its way to Dell's Inspiron 530 desktop in England, France and Germany later this week. Canonical shoved out Ubuntu 7.10 in October, touting a much more user-friendly version of Linux.

What took Dell so long to jump onto the new OS? Well, testing, testing, testing, of course.

We upgraded our Inspiron 1420 back in October as Dipse Gutsy went live and lost our GUI. Some of you helped fix the problem by offering tips, while others decided to welcome us to Linux with repeated kicks to the shins and attempts at public humiliation. Thanks, guys.

The biggest gripe we hear about Dell's Ubuntu program is that the company will only offer the OS on relatively crap hardware. Still, as we revealed in an exclusive story, at least 40,000 of you were impressed enough with the crap to shell out for a system.

In order to see Ubuntu on more Dell gear and in more countries, you need to buy, buy, buy, according to, er, Dell. The guys in Round Rock issued their very subtle sales pitch earlier this week.

Dell has refrained from claiming that it invented Ubuntu, but the company is ready to pat itself on the back for making some OS tweaks. You can apparently thank Dell for the pre-installation of Flash and "improved recovery options with a full factory restore from hard drive and the ability to burn the system-specific recovery image to DVD media right from the user's desktop" in 7.10. ®

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