Dell likely to be first vendor to launch Ubuntu Light netbooks, say notebook makers

Canonical on October 7 announced its latest Ubuntu 10.10 operating system and Ubuntu Light for netbooks, and noted that consumers should be able to see Ubuntu Light-featured netbooks appearing in the channel within a month. Taiwan notebook makers expect Dell to be the first brand vendor to launch related netbooks, as among all notebook vendors, Dell currently has the biggest number of PC products that are pre-installed with Ubuntu. However, Canonical declined to comment on the speculation.

Ubuntu Light only requires a boot-up time of seven seconds, and features several basic functions such as Internet browsing and e-mail processing. Meanwhile, the operating system (OS) shares the same file format as Windows 7 to allow easier data access between the two systems.

As for the prices of products featuring Ubuntu Light, Canonical only pointed out that they will be decided by brand vendors. But notebook makers believe the prices are unlikely to see significant differences compared to those of Windows 7-only machines and should be attractive to consumers.