So...I was in Wal-Mart...

[Spot]

I needed some printer ink, they gots it cheep, so I stopped one of the sales reps in the electronics/puter dept...

me: So...could check out one of those puters that has no OS installed or linux pre-installed?

puter sales rep: <blank stare>

me: Yea, I've been reading for a couple months now how Wal-Mart has Microtel PCs without a preinstalled operating system on them, and now that they are also available with Lindows or Mandrake Linux pre-installed. They're supposedly under $700. I'd like to check one out.

puter sales rep: <blank stare>

me: can you show me one?

puter sales rep: <blink>

me: eh...hello?

puter sales rep: I don't know what you're talking about, the only computer system we have here is this HP with on the shelf Windows XP on it

me: <sigh> I'm outta here

[JimH]

LOL HAHAHAHAHAHA! :P

He probably had never heard of Linux.

I really don't think this is anything really good for Linux anyway. MirocTel? ??? Are these going to be quality computers? Is the average Walmart shopper going to know enough about computers to be able to use windoze much less Linux? I doubt it. Then they go around telling other people "Linux sucks". :P

What about Lindows, is it going to be a quality Linux distro? Or it just going to give people who know nothing another reason to say Linux sucks? For that matter is Lindows really a "good thing" for Linux?

Sheeeez to many questions today.

Jim H

[mugs]

I have seen them for sale on-line with Lindows. What exactly IS Lindows?

[mugs]

Here is the link:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...A86796%3A96356

[x0xCRIZx0x]

Somehow, I don't expect Wal-Mart employees to be knowledgeable enough to answer questions about linux :P

[Spot]

Somehow, I don't expect Wal-Mart employees to be knowledgeable enough to answer questions about linux :P

I didn't ask him a thing about linux, just about a product I'd heard they were selling. Since then, I've found out the mandrake PCs are only being sold online, however, nothing pertaining to online-only sales of the OS'less PCs is written anywhere on their website.

[babbing]

this doesn't sound good at all :-\

[beatlejuice321]

It seems Lindows is pretty awful for Wal-Mart and the Linux community, check out this review from "Russell Pavlicek" at "Info World". His article sums it up pretty well.

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op...15opsource.xml


Personaly, I think Mandrake is a great choice for a Stock OS. The average customer at Wal-Mart can use if for just about anything, except of course for games. But perhaps that will come in time for Linux, If the need is strong enough by "home users". Games can only follow, and create even more demand for the OS to succeed.

-Beatlejuice

[Cooter]

Linux that always runs as root? No wonder they call it Lindows.

[Spot]

Linux that always runs as root? No wonder they call it Lindows.

It's not a bug, it's a feature(TM)