Will Linux return to Dell desktops and notebooks? The company needs to patch up its customer relations, and its latest effort to do so points back to Linux.

Dell launched IdeaStorm on Feb. 16, a kind of online sounding board that borrows from user-generated news sites like Digg. People submit and vote on ideas for services and products the company should consider. Out of more than 1,400 ideas submitted, pre-installation of Linux on Dell PCs led the voting. IdeaStorm users are asking for Ubuntu, Fedora, or openSUSE--all free desktop versions of the open source operating system. Second to the request for Linux is pre-installation of OpenOffice, the open source office productivity suite. As of Thursday, Linux had received more than 6,800 votes, OpenOffice more than 4,000. Some of those votes could have been the result of people voting more than once--Dell didn't put in steps to prevent multiple voting until Feb. 21.

Dell won't say if it will offer Linux, which it offered on PCs in 2001. Such a plan might have once seemed impossible, given Dell's close ties to Microsoft, but Dell recently broke from its Intel exclusivity to also sell AMD servers. Michael Dell, in returning as CEO last month to replace Kevin Rollins, vowed to "fix the consumer experience." We'll see if Dell thinks enough consumers wants Linux.