Lenovo
Carrying on the legacy of IBM's ThinkPad line, Lenovo is all about enterprise systems. So it's no surprise that their T60p and newly announced T61p ThinkPads are certified for Novell SUSE. Unfortunately, Lenovo is a little sheepish about its Linux offerings, so it doesn't ship any of its systems with Linux preinstalled. You'll have to buy your ThinkPad with a blank hard drive and then get your own copy of SUSE to install. While this is less attractive for unambitious first-timers, the ThinkPad's spec sheet reads like a laundry list of readily supported hardware, which means getting up and running with any major distro should be completely headache-free (even though Lenovo only officially supports Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10). At press time, the T60 and T61 Mobile Workstations were priced starting at $1,378. You won't find any good multimedia options in these built-for-corporate systems.

Mirus
Long before Dell decided to make Ubuntu available to ordinary home users, Mirus and Linspire (formerly known as Lindows) were putting Linux machines in the real-world shopping carts of everyday Americans, right next to the bulk packs of pork rinds. At press time, it appears that Wal-Mart has discontinued its Linspire-equipped PC offerings, but budget-minded shoppers can still order whimpy Celeron systems for as little as $300 from Sears.com. Koobox.com offers Mirus's Pentium 4 Linspire systems for $400.

System 76
Dedicated entirely to Linux, System 76 offers a wide variety of notebook and desktop machines for home and business. The company's line-up boasts four different notebook series, from ultralights to widescren performance systems, and four different desktop syystems, from the compact Koala to the gamer-centric Wild Dog. Desktops start at $399 and notebooks at $649. All of the systems come with Ubuntu pre-installed.

Ultimately, if you really are looking for a preconfigured Linux PC, Dell is probably your better choice. But it's worth knowing that Dell isn't your only choice. The five options listed here are just a sampling of the many companies offering systems equipped with or ready for Linux. And with a small amount of forethought, you can easily build your own Linux-ready system from the mobo up. (Or just try slapping Ubuntu on the machine you've already got. It'll probably work just fine.)