The recent decision by Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) to ship another round of low-cost PCs in China without Windows Vista underscores the growing viability of alternatives to Windows on the desktop.

Dell has been selling Linux PCs in China--though not the U.S.--for several years, alongside its Windows XP boxes. The company just launched the EC280 series of low-cost (under $400) desktops, which run Linux and XP rather than Vista.

Other recent events reinforce the idea that enterprises want alternatives to Vista. The U. S. Department of Transportation has put a freeze on upgrades to Vista and other current Microsoft releases. The Federal Aviation Administration recently revealed that it may drop Windows altogether (after the sunset of XP) in favor of Linux machines accessing Google Apps. Peugeot is deploying 20,000 Novell Linux desktops.

Many of the enterprises Nemertes works with are zeroing in on a thin-client strategy, in which clients gain access to Windows running in a data center, either as traditional terminal services or as full-fledged virtual desktops, with the real desktop machines reduced largely to keyboard/video/mouse duties.

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