Everex launches $198 Ubuntu Linux gPC at Wal-Mart

They're selling a Linux box for less than $200 at retail -- and in potentially thousands of stores. NOT aiming their product at fanboys (Dell).

If this works right, it appears that the distro will be "tuned" to the hardware, since Everex is putting the box and OS together.

Linux will be successful when people are running it and barely know they're running it (or don't know at all). When it "just works," it will be a great thing.

I'm not saying that this is that product, but the potential exists. A lot will depend on marketing, as always.

I couldn't agree more Steven. The thing is, there will never be a "product" that will act as a holy grail of Linux on the desktop.

It is a gradual process and this is just one more step in the right direction.

I recently had a man ask me, after discussing just how many problems he was having with Windows, "Why can't I just wipe it and run this Linux?"

Exactly. This is going to be big simply because of putting the alternative up as viable, and visible.

Quoting:Call Wal-Mart what you will, but who else is doing this?

Actually, they're not the only hypermarket doing this if you look at a global scale: Carrefour, the largest hypermarket after WalMart - has already been selling Linux boxes for some months now (However, Carrefour is selling mainly via the net), and recently I discovered Tesco - they are only in GB, IE, CZ and SK at the moment; does the same. They are selling Ubuntu boxes for £139.93, which is rather cheap in the EU region.

So, at this time at least on four continents Linux desktops can be bought at the hypermarket, which sounds like a good thing.

When people use TiVo, for the most part they have no idea that Linux is running the thing. And probably 90 percent (or more) of Apple OS X users don't know that it's based on BSD. Even fewer know that you can open a terminal and get a command line.

Dell isn't ready to piss off Microsoft too much. I don't know what the savings is when you buy a Dell box with Ubuntu but any savings is magnified when your product (in this case Everex/Dell's) is retailing for $198.

I don't know what Everex is paying for Windows Vista, but I calculate the Microsoft tax at $80 for this box -- or more than 20 percent of the purchase price. http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2007/11/walmart_back_in_the...