Dell last week began selling low-cost Linux PCs to enterprise and consumer customers. They just have to be in China to get a hold of the machines.

Dell began offering Dell Dimension C51-n machines with Athlon64 3200 CPUs, a 17-inch LCD monitor, and a pre-loaded Linux operating system for 2,999 Chinese yuan (around $517 U.S.). Dell would not say what version of Linux it will offer on the machines.

Dell appears to be trying to upstage China-based Lenovo, the former PC/laptop division of IBM, which was sold off in 2004. Lenovo currently offers no low-cost Linux machines in China — a country where Linux has become very popular, with the emergence of Red Flag Linux, a Linux company based in China offering a distribution by the same name. Dell, for example, has sold tens of thousands of Linux-based PCs to elementary schools in China, running Sun Wah Linux — a Chinese distribution of Linux based on Debian.

This is all fine and good, some stateside desktop Linux enthusiasts may say, but what about us? The distribution of Linux on pre-installed Dell machines has been a sore spot lately for Dell's U.S. customers. The controversy started in February when Dell launched its social networking site Dellideastorm.com, where members could contribute ideas on what directions Dell should take, then vote the suggestions up or down on the list.

An overwhelming number of participants said Dell should start offering free Linux distributions on its PCs and laptops. Some called for other types of open source software support. Since then, Dell has said it is investigating bringing back wide distributions of Dell Linux PCs, a practice it stopped several years ago.

The Chinese Dell Linux deal was probably well in motion before the Dellideastorm flap began. Unfortunately, this may give more fodder to the "enthusiastic" — to say the least — Dell Linux proponents to paint the vendor as unresponsive to customers. The ball is in Dell's court now.