Wal-Mart stops selling Linux enabled computers
Wal-Mart started selling computers running the Linux operating system in October of last year. Unfortunately due to a supposed failure to sell, the company has now ceased stocking them in store, and will sell through their website instead.
When Wal-Mart announced an experiment to test demand for an affordable computer running the open source Linux based operating system, it was seen as a sign that Linux was moving in to the mainstream. By selling the Everex gPC for $199 in stores, there was a hope that the system would gain wider attention, but that seems not to have been the case.
According to Yahoo! News, Wal-Mart has now announced the end of the test period, and Linux based PCs will now revert back to only being sold online at Walmart.com.
Company spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said:
“This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for.”
What’s unusual about that statement is that in flies in the face of the fact that Wal-Mart did actually sell out all stock at the 600 stores who had the PCs on the shelf, and just decided not to restock, so I don’t know how much of a failure that really is.
The other thing to remember is that these computers were sold without monitors, a factor which could have been more important in the decision making over buying one by your typical Wal-Mart customer that which operating system it was running.
There is clearly still a problem persuading consumers that a PC without Windows can be just as functional as one with Windows, and it will take time to change that view, but despite what the doom merchants may say about this so called “failure” at Wal-Mart, all I think it proves is that Wal-Mart isn’t the place to try and wean people off being Microsoft or Apple zealots.
Related Posts:
March 11th, 2008
Doesn’t bother me. Walmart could have done for Linux what AOL did for the internet. I’m getting cold sweats thinking about all these folks that are disabling UAC running as root because it’s more convenient.
March 11th, 2008
This will not affect the growing adoption of Linux in anyway. 23,000 school computers in the Philippines just went to all Linux.
There has been a growing trend for resale and refurb computer shops to install Linux on computers that would otherwise be sold with no OS.
What would be a real big boost to Linux is if manufacturers sold Windows installed machines as a dual boot with Linux. If that happened, maybe it could get the EU off of Microsoft’s back.
March 29th, 2009
Linux is not as functional as windows, and I doubt it will ever be. Fact.