Dell has launched a website where users can submit and vote on ideas for new products and enhancements to older products. 

The mechanism behind Dell IdeaStorm is similar to that of social book-marking services such as Digg and Del.icio.us. Users can submit ideas to the service, and other users can vote and comment on those suggestions. 

In the first few days of the service, users urged Dell to promote open source software more aggressively. A suggestion that Dell should "preinstall Linux" to cut the price of new PCs attracted more than 45,000 votes over a three-day period.

The second highest ranking comment asked for the option to have Sun's OpenOffice preinstalled on new systems, attracting more than 25,000 votes in two days.

Users also backed up complaints about the large amount of trial or sponsored software that comes bundled with new systems, such as trial subscriptions for internet services or browser toolbars.

"We are at our best when we are hearing directly from our customers," said Dell chief executive Michael Dell at the unveiling.

"We listen, learn and then improve and innovate on what our customers want. It is one of the real advantages of being a direct company."

Dell currently supports Linux on its servers, and offers a set of three desktop computers preinstalled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

The vendor does not offer any Linux laptops, but sells a few models with no preinstalled operating system. It does not support OpenOffice.

Dell promised to use the website to keep the public informed on ideas that it plans to implement and will post updates on the IdeaStorm website.