It's no secret—anyone who wants to avoid supporting Vista is going to have a hard time buying a new computer. Most new computers come with Microsoft Windows preinstalled, and already it is difficult to find a machine not carrying Vista around on its back.

Many of you helped bring this concern to Dell by voting at their new feedback site. You said you wanted an option to buy a machine without Microsoft Windows preinstalled, or with a free software operating system.

The Free Software Foundation published a paper today entitled, “The road to hardware free from restrictions” calling on major hardware vendors to recognize that they can have a mutually beneficial relationship with the free software community, and outlining the areas vendors should act in to make that a reality.

The paper is being sent by the FSF directly to the biggest manufacturers, but it's vital that users and consumers also communicate this message. It's nonsensical that people have to pay a premium on hardware to cover the cost of Microsoft Windows when they are just going to format the hard drive and install GNU/Linux as soon as they get the machine home.

You can start by giving the paper a digg.