From: "John Beamish" 

The bug relates to a corruption of the real-time-clock.  If it manifests
itself then your Dell won't even POST.  The issue, when it happens, is so
serious that the only recovery is to remove the clock battery, wait a
while, reinstall the battery and reboot.

Here's a link to the bug reported in Ubuntu
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.17/+bug/43745

Here's a (truly NSFW) reaction from someone who happened across it
http://www.respectsakura.org/2006/11/04/my-two-word-review-of-ubuntu-linux/

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