We're officially getting to the point where it's harder to find a computer manufacturer that doesn't sell a consumer oriented Linux PC than to find one that does. Of course, you still don't have a wide variety to choose from in the US, but Acer is selling a laptop loaded with Ubuntu in Singapore. And now HP plans to sell desktop systems with Red Hat 5 in Australia.
The HP dx2250 has a base price of $AU600, which is about $490 US dollars. The systems come with OpenOffice, Firefox, and Evolution preinstalled, which is pretty much all you need to make a Linux desktop useful for most computer users.
Now if we could just get HP to offer the system in the US. Sure, you could go ahead and install Red Hat, Ubuntu, or your Linux distribution of choice on almost any HP computer you might pick up. But it's nice to buy a system that you know has been tested for driver compatibility first.
