Several weeks ago, rumors began swirling about Dell’s potential plan to begin offering its customers a choice between Windows or Linux operating system for PCs and notebooks.

Reports have surfaced throughout the blogosphere that Dell may be considering offering its customers the choice of a preinstalled Linux distribution when purchasing new PCs from the company.

The speculation stems from Dell’s IdeaStorm website, where the discussion surrounding the possibility of Linux distribution and support is currently dominating the community consciousness.

Dell IdeaStorm, which launched earlier this month, is the ultimate example of Seth Godin-style “take something good, innovate, and make it great” thinking.

There was only one decent reason to buy a PC in the months leading up to the launch of Windows Vista: the Express Upgrade program, which gave buyers of new PCs with Windows XP a free or cheap upgrade to Vista. The "Express" part of the upgrade is turning out to be a bit misleading for Dell customers, with the upgrades arriving on a first-come first-served basis in as many as 6-8 weeks, plus a website that’s experiencing nasty downtime, bugs, driver issues and other kinks.

The PC maker unveiled two new elements of its digital media strategy over the weekend, as they seek user-created videos showing how people use their products, and a Digg-like message board where people can make and vote on suggestions for Dell.

I think it’s great that Dell has come out with IdeaStorm, a suggestion site inspired by Digg (and that inspiration is explicily admitted on the site, unlike Yahoo’s recently launched suggestion sites, which caused such a ruckus because they were supposedly a “ripoff” of Digg). And like Rob Hyndman, I think the name is great too.

Microsoft, Google, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Philips are petitioning the FCC to allow them to create a handheld internet device that uses vacated TV airwaves to establish wireless internet access.

I’m not exactly sure what the point is, except maybe to use all the now-useless TV rooftop antennas to create a new way of connecting homes to internet service providers, without laying tons of new cable. It’s all confusing, but the main thing is that a certain gadget blog embaressed themselves by prematurely assuming this was all about a Zune phone.

Whether the rules of any given social media space are written or unwritten, it is important for marketers and communicators entering these spaces to learn them.

The big unanswered question with Windows Home Server is how much it’ll cost you to get one.

I think the coolest thing that many of the bloggers in the BlogHaus saw was the water show in front of the Bellagio tonight. Paul Mooney recorded it.

I totally forgot about the amount of mainstream press that Jeff Jarvis’ generated against Dell when Dell’s customer service told him to “pound sand.”

A deal between Google and Dell has finally come to fruition: some computer owners, after booting up for the first time, are being greeted by the phrase “Welcome to your new Dell PC – in partnership with Google.”

Online spending continues to increase at a record breaking pace. Cyber Monday the first Monday after Thanksgiving saw online sales reach an all time high of $608 million. The record was short lived. Last Monday, December 4 online sales shot to $647 million according to comScore Networks. That is $39 million more in online spending than on Cyber Monday. It also marks a 26 percent increase over the same day from last year.

At the bottom of Dell Computers‘ home page, there’s a pull-down menu you can use to load a version of the home page in the language of your country.

They want to be where people are gathering so it was an easy decision to make for Dell to go into Second Life.

It’s coming thick and fast now – commentary and news on which business is doing what in Second Life.