Just a few days ago, Dell announced an initiative to offer Ubuntu Linux on a line of its desktop and notebook computers. This has a broad range of implications for the future of Linux. While driver support is sometimes hit or miss in the Linux world, hardware should be fully supported on these pre-installed machines. Further, Dell’s endorsement of Ubuntu will pressure other companies that offer peripherals and accessories to at least investigate the possibility of supporting their devices on the OS. In the same way that the rise of Windows in its early days caused software companies to write their software for the fledgling OS, this reinforcing mechanism will no doubt find its way into the emergence of Linux.

Munich, Germany, made the dicision to make the switch from Microsoft to Linux back in 2003. Now that Dell is offering Ubuntu, an interesting question in regard to diffusion in networks and information cascades arises. Consider a government employee in Munich who must learn a distribution of Linux for his work. If he has a favorable experience with the OS, would that be enough for him to choose Linux rather than Windows for home use? Clearly, this may be at least part of the reason why Microsoft has been offering aggressive discounts in an attempt to retain its government and corporate customers.

We’ve discussed how situations involving network effects are often not socially optimal, as well as the possibility that such a product may not, in fact, be superior than its competitors. If Ubuntu is indeed a superior product for certain needs, could we be at a crossroads in the future of operating systems? Despite the outpouring of support for Dell in offering Ubuntu, consumers will ultimately vote with their pocketbooks, and only time will tell if Linux distros such as Ubuntu are successful in the mainstream.