SALON

Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 4:29 PM UTC

Linux PCs flop on Wal-Mart shelves

The store won't restock the $200 computers.

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Topics: Linux,

Wal-Mart announced on Monday that it will not restock its shelves with the $200 Green gPC, a Linux desktop computer that the retailer had been selling in some stores as a test of the open-source OS’s appeal.

The company stocked about 600 of its stores with the machines last October. Wal-Mart wouldn’t say how poorly they sold, but a rep told the Associated Press, “This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for.”

Everex, the Taiwanese PC maker that produced the Green gPCs, says that sales were better on Wal-Mart’s Web site. Wal-Mart will continue to sell the machines online.

Wal-Mart ends test of Linux in stores

Farhad Manjoo is a Salon staff writer and the author of True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. More Farhad Manjoo.

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