Linux PCs: Customer service or lip service?

Thinking about buying a new Linux-based home PC? Happy hunting.

While for years mainstream computer makers such as IBM, HP and Dell have been professing their love for alternatives to Microsoft Windows, the overwhelming majority of open-source-powered machines are business servers and high-priced workstations.

Finding an entry-level home PC that doesn’t have a Windows XP sticker on it requires consumers to search through a maze of Web sites. If they try calling a major PC maker, the agent is likely to have a hard time steering them toward a Linux-based or bare-bones system.

“There is no champion for Linux clients among the major vendors,” PC industry analyst Roger Kay said.

Red Hat Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said open-source software hasn’t caught on in the industry as much as he’d like. Red Hat itself only has a modest Linux product aimed at a relatively narrow set of customers such as those manning the phones at call centers.

“The (Linux) desktop is like teenage sex. Everybody’s talking about it, but nobody’s doing it,” Szulik said during his keynote speech at the Vortex conference in San Francisco last week.

Full article: C|net News.com