Dell’s official blog has recently updated eager Linux customers about the latest major advancements in providing Dell machines with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn pre-installed, and things look pretty well.

John Hull, Manager of Linux OS Technologies at Dell, posted on Dell’s official blog what appears to be the last update concerning what customers should expect from the company’s initiative to offer Ubuntu 7.04 (also known as Feisty Fawn) on its machines, before the official commercialization starts on Thursday.

Dell’s official assures customers that Dell will take care of installing both open source drivers for its hardware (when possible) and partial open source/closed source ("restricted" in Ubuntu terms) drivers when open source ones are not available. For owners of Intel wireless cards and Connexant modems that means they’ll be able to use those with closed source drivers.

“The peripheral options offered with Ubuntu will be a subset of what is offered with other operating systems. We're offering the hardware options on each system that have the most mature and stable Linux driver support. These hardware options have been thoroughly tested by the Linux team here at Dell.”

Dell will also ready a wiki page containing useful information about the Ubuntu hardware and software available with the initial release, and the company also stated that hardware vendors that are not yet included in the Ubuntu Linux program are currently working with Dell to improve the stability and maturity of their associated Linux drivers.

Support for proprietary audio and video codecs not included in the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn will not be provided for the moment, but Dell is evaluating options for providing this support in the future.

In an e-mail cited on Computerworld.com, an undisclosed internal source from the Texas hardware giant said that "We will be launching a Linux-based OS [Ubuntu] on the E520 [budget Dimension desktop PC], 1505 [Inspiron laptop] and [home entertainment level PC] XPS 410 starting next Thursday, 5/24."