IBM (NYSE: IBM) will start offering PCs that do not run Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows operating system. According to The Wall Street Journal, "IBM says it has created a "Microsoft-free" virtual desktop -- a complete suite of applications that run on a backroom server and don't require Microsoft software or costly desktop hardware."

The new machines will use Linux and IBM software and will cost as little as $59 per machine, which could save companies several hundred dollars per desktop.

While IBM would say it is offering the new package because "server side" computing allows many workstations to run from one server, which saves money, there's no denying this is also an aggressive move against Redmond.

Windows is already under siege. The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) operating system continues to take market share as Mac sales increase. The latest version of Windows, Vista, is so unpopular that many companies have refused to upgrade to it. Open source Linux has not been very successful against Microsoft, but IBM could help change that.

For Microsoft, PC users slowly moving away from Windows to a number of other alternatives is death by a thousand cuts. There is no one thing that the software company can do to keep customers other than rush a more popular version of Windows to market. That would mean it is more likely to have annoying "bugs."

Windows is where Microsoft makes its money, for now at least.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Just a few weeks after Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) opened up its "IdeaStorm" digg-like customer blog and feedback forum, the top issues generated by customers at the site were asking (and in fact, pleading) for the world's second-largest PC maker to sell its PCs pre-loaded with the free Linux operating system.

While almost all PCs sold today include a copy of Microsoft's Windows operating system, the price of that Windows software is included in the PC's price. What if you don't want to pay for or receive Microsoft Windows on that new Dell PC? Fat chance during the last few years, as that was the only non-excludable operating system choice for almost all consumer-level PCs purchased from Dell.

But, in true Michael Dell fashion, the computer maker's recent top management changes -- including the return of Dell himself to the CEO position -- renewed a focus on what customers want. This is great news, as companies collude all day long in glad-handed deals to sell each other's wares regardless of what the customer wants. Dell himself built the company he is now running again by focusing on what customers really want.

Whether the Linux crowd is just a vocal minority or a representation of a larger customer base that does not want to pay for Windows in the price of a PC any longer, the option to include Linux on new Dell PCs is a return to what Dell used to do best -- listen to and respond to customers. It'll be interesting to see how its next few fiscal quarters break out in terms of how many PCs ship with Windows and with Linux, yes?