Definitely wont happen Dai according to Dell. Ivy Bridge is as far back as they are going and released the A26 bios just recently which is on all my machines. Im with you Jim I also like Dell but Im a bit prejudiced as Ive worked for them on and off for years.
Using FreeDOS is a great way to do a bios update assuming you dont have an alternate method. In my case all my desktop hardware are Dell Optiplex 7010 systems so Ive got a Win7 test drive that I use to boot the system and install the bios update. You can use FreeDOS as Dai/tlmiller mentioned and as tlmiller mentioned much newer hardware has the feature built in.
You should never update the bios unless you are sure you need it or will gain something from it. Microcode updates are commonplace in Linux.
What we might want to do is post a how to on bios updates for Linux users.
If youve got older hardware microcode is your only option.