Dell has officially supported Linux since 1999 with our release of Red Hat Linux 6.1 for PowerEdge servers. In the course of making sure that each successive Linux release that we ship works as well as our customers demand, we have made many contributions to the open source community. These contributions have come in many forms, from hardware donations to strategic organizations, code contributions to the Linux kernel, code contributions to selected userspace utilities, to participation and sponsorship of Linux technical conferences.
http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/10/02/2956.aspx