We Heard You Already! Why do the Dell Ubuntu Laptops Have A Windows Command Key On Them?

Yes in the picture below, that is blatantly a Windows key meant to invoke the Windows start menu. But what the hell is it doing here?

And by here i am refering to brand spanking new Dell 1420N pre-loaded with Ubuntu 7.04. We were very excited when we first played around with this open source beast! It runs wonderfully everything was already preconfigured and our junior tech who ordered it had it up and running with all his apps in under an hour. That’s right no messy driver issues or such… But then DELL why oh why would you brand this beautiful hunk of machinery with a M$ logo?

It looks like all anyone wants is to be able to customize their machine – after all they did buy a very DIFFERENT laptop compared to more traditional offerings. Why not give them the option? I’m sure the end users would rather the key be blank then have an icon for an OS they are trying to get away from! Do ya guys think Micro$oft had their grubby hands in this? Well after about 15 emails from our loyal readers (and our AtA resident Linux Guru pestering us!) we decided to post this and ask the public:

What do you want to see here replacing the Windows key on this laptop?

Our first suggestion was a customizable icon that you can either upload to dell or have them include a transparent sticker that you can print on! How cool would that be? Probably only thing that would be cooler would be a Customizable LED Key! (I know fat chance!)