I'm not sure how carefully Dell is really listening. I spent a fruitless couple of days trying to find out whether Dell even offers any computers with Linux preinstalled. I was unable to get an answer to what should have been a simple "yes" or "no" question. My guess is that they don't offer Linux, and want to try to work me around to buying a Vista box.

Maybe they're responding to the complaints about Vista, but they apparently aren't persuaded about Linux (yet).

I would consider buying an XP computer as a last resort. I would not consider buying a Vista computer. I'm not sure I'd accept one if it were offered to me free.