I wonder if Dell's software engineers are currently figuring out how to port all the bundled Windows crapware to Ubuntu. For example, Dell's insidious Support Tool, the invasive Network Manager, the useless wireless management tools, the crippled versions of Corel Paintshop or Snapfire, all of the crummy ISP preloads and, of course, the bloatware that is McAfee/Norton Internet Security. Or worse still, Google's Desktop and Toolbar. All crapware that the end user didn't want and has no option to specify whether or not it is installed on the computer that they've just forked out good money for.

Dell, please take note. Don't bother porting anything. The first thing that any user with half a brain will do is slam in the OS CD (assuming that Dell supply one, which often isn't the case), flatten the box and build a nice clean crapware free one, which is what should have been shipped in the first place. Personally, I'd be willing (though not happy) to pay an extra tenner just to tick a box on the Dell website to state that I want just the OS and drivers installed on my new PC. Whether it be Ubuntu, Windows or whatever.