Recently, we wrote about Dell's intent to bundle open source applications on computers for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The pre-configured "SMB-in-a-box" software bundles are targeted to make it easier for customers to become familiar with and use open source applications and platforms. As InfoWorld noted recently, though, Forrester and other market researchers have found that SMBs are apphrehensive about open source. Will Dell succeed with its strategy, and could it build support businesses around the offerings?

Last week, we covered the big news from Dell that it will be offering open source application bundles to small- and medium-sized business (SMB) customers looking for low cost alternatives to commercial software. The pre-configured "SMB-in-a-box" software is only available in the U.S. for now, but Dell expects to lauch a similar offering in Asia by the end of 2009. Today, Matt Asay considers whether open source is getting the SMB market right, and he points to Savio Rodrigues' thoughts on how many SMBs still perceive open source as not secure and too complex. Those may indeed be problems, but I see the larger problem being that many people at SMBs are simply not aware of open source alternatives to proprietary software products.