Mailing the story:

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s decision last month to sell desktop PCs with Linux installed on them in Australia is giving hope to Linux advocates at the Encompass HP user group that a similar system may be on its way in the U.S. Steve Illgen heads the Linux special interest group within Encompass, an independent user group in Chicago and has about 15,000 members. He thinks that small and midsize businesses in the U.S. also need a Linux desktop to give them a less expensive alternative to systems running Windows Vista.