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Linux PCs Discontinued at Wal-Mart Stores
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:57 AM
from the we-barely-knew-ye dept.
from the we-barely-knew-ye dept.
eldavojohn writes "The $200 Linux PCs discussed earlier last year have been discontinued for sale at Wal-Mart's physical locations, though they will remain for sale at walmart.com. All this despite the systems repeatedly selling out. From the article, 'Paul Kim, brand manager for Everex, said selling the gPC online was "significantly more effective" than selling it in stores.'"
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$200 Linux PCs On Sale At Wal-Mart 537 comments
Placid sends in a Wired blog entry on Wal-Mart's new sub-$200 Linux-based PC. Wired calls it "a custom distribution of Ubuntu Linux," and the AP identifies the distro as gOS, made by a small company in Los Angeles. Wal-Mart began selling Linux PCs in 2002 but they have been out of stock for a while. From the Wired blog: "It has a 1.5 Ghz VIA C7 CPU embedded in a Mini-ITX motherboard, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. Normally, this would simply mark it as unacceptably low-end for use with modern software. By using the fast Enlightenment desktop manager (instead of heavier-duty alternatives like Gnome or KDE), the makers say it's more responsive than Vista is, even on more powerful computers."
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Wal-Mart's $200 Linux PC Sells Out 619 comments
hankmt writes "About a week ago Wal-Mart began selling a $200 Linux machine running on a 1.5 ghz VIA C7 processor and 512 MB of RAM. While the specs are useless for Vista, it works blazingly fast on Ubuntu with the Enlightenment Window Manager. The machine is now officially sold out of their online warehouses (it may still be available in some stores). And the product sales page at wal-mart.com is full of glowing reviews from new and old Linux users alike."
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Linux PCs Discontinued at Wal-Mart Stores
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No worries, mate (Score:1)
Just go get the cheapest Windows PC you can find (they have a sticker that says "Vista Capable" or "Vista Ready") and install Linux. It's cheaper than buying a dedicated Linux machine.
Re:No worries, mate (Score:4, Insightful)
More importantly though, part of the money you're paying to replace Vista with Ubuntu goes to Microsoft, which allows them to further their monopoly. Do you really feel good about doing that?
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Re:No worries, mate (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:No worries, mate (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:No worries, mate (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:No worries, mate (Score:4, Insightful)
You're right about that being the cheapest way to get a linux machine. I think the objection to that would be on principle more than anything else -- people won't want to pay the Vista license fee if they're not gonna actually use Vista. In fact, if you're trying to get value for money its a little annoying to know that your PC could have been cheaper if you didn't have to pay for s/w you're not going to use.
It's important to note though, that users do have a choice in the matter (buying the gPC in the store/online - and now just online). If Walmart decided to discontinue it because of the lack of demand, that's fair game. If Walmart decides they would rather install Vista on everything rather than the hassle of having seperate SKUs (with Vista/without Vista) - that's fair game as well.
Parent
Re:No worries, mate (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you willing to buy it back from me for the price I gave if one or more of its peripherals has no good Linux device driver, where by good I mean having speed and feature parity with the Windows driver? Are you willing to send me the cost of Windows, so I don't have to pay for something I don't want?
Actually, never mind--even if you're willing to do that, some of my money would be going to MS, and I will not do anything that benefits MS.
Parent
Normal (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Normal (Score:5, Informative)
Bottom line, walk-in customers at Wal-Mart weren't into these products, but more tech-savvy people that buy online form a sufficient market for Wal-Mart to serve. What is important about the latter fact is that it means Wal-Mart will be ready to supply demand should desktop Linux become more mainstream.
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Re:Normal (Score:5, Interesting)
However online sales were a success, which is nice.
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Re:Normal (Score:5, Insightful)
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Its called shelf space (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember back to the stories about Wal-Mart's push into CFLs and how the person at Wal-Mart pushing these had to make a case to get shelf space. They had to present a case and prove themselves.
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Re:Normal (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Normal (Score:5, Insightful)
More importantly, at $200 for a PC, it's profit margin had to be quite a bit lower than any of those things. I'd bet that even selling like hotcakes it would be one of the least efficient items in the store, in terms of profit per square foot.
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More interesting from the article.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:More interesting from the article.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:More interesting from the article.. (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.xkcd.com/378/ [xkcd.com]
Parent
mmm yes (Score:5, Interesting)
A thought (Score:5, Insightful)
In any case, I think part of the problem is that most people I know wouldn't envision Wal-Mart as a PC retailer. Be it my computer-illiterate neighbor whose spyware I'm constantly removing or my grandparents who only use their computer for occasional e-mail, I'd bet the majority would go to an electronics store like Best Buy or Circuit City over a general retailer like Wal-Mart for a purchase that big. Wal-Mart may not be a bad place for cheap groceries or clothing, but the employees there won't know jack about the computers they're selling...and even if that's also true at the local electronics chain store, the perception that they know at least something about computers can make all the difference.
Re:A thought (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm running a small business: I have only one staff who is not a technophobe, but all but geeky either. My computers come with Linux as I can manage that well, I just don't know Windows and don't want to learn it as Linux is working fine for me.
So now how is she coping with Linux on the computer? No problems. She didn't realise we're not using Word but using OpenOffice.org until I mentioned it. E-mail using Evolution is also easy; I set up the accounts of course but with a little coaching setting up mail folders and the like is now also done by herself. After a few days I noticed she changed the background of the desktop, found it out herself.
No problems with it. Not at all. I got the request from her today to set up MSN Messenger, for contact with a customer, and then told her it's there already, called GAIM. The reaction she gave when seeing all the supported protocols was "wow that's convenient, saves downloading and installing a lot of programs!"
Linux is getting there, and is doing so quickly. I think really the main reason most people still buy Windows is mindshare. Linux is different, is scary. But for most of the users, what they do does not require ANY knowledge of the underlying system at all: they now already ask their friends to maintain their Windows. They will just have to call less frequently.
Oh yeah and I'm also a proud owner of an EEE PC. That one I don't recommend to the casual user as it has way too many rough edges. This is not a complaint towards Linux as such but towards the UI makers that do not think of anything smaller than 1024x768 pixels. It all is just a little too much hacking.
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"Repeatedly sold out" doesn't get cancelled. (Score:2, Insightful)
The "repeatedly sold out" link is a little misleading, too. It isn't exactly a solid list of endorsements -- well, it seems a lot of people bought it and then promptly returned to the website to bitch it didn't come with Windows. In short: it flopped.
I do have to wonder -- and this will certainly invite some livid replies -- solid engineering is great, but I always seem to get the sense that solid marketing and solid sales practices aren't valued in the same way by the F/OSS community, and if it doesn't fail to gain them any ground, it might actually hurt them, as well. I mean, that stuff doesn't have value because people like wasting money. Packaging and naming and charm and all of that has value. WTF is a gOS?
How much of it was support / training costs (Score:5, Interesting)
As an aside, I went and bought myself an eee PC. The sales guy was clumsily trying to explain that it didn't run Windows. He seemed relieved when I told him I knew it ran Linux and it wasn't a problem.
Why isn't anyone asking the question... (Score:5, Interesting)
In am not a fan of conspiracy theories, but have we forgotten how Microsoft became a monopoly in the first place? It bullied all its retailers to drop alternatives. On the surface this is exactly the type of press that the consumers were fed. Yet at the end of the day, no one was left standing but Microsoft, and only then did we start asking the right questions and figured out how it happened. By then it was too late.
There are many "possible" reasons why the Linux box was dropped, and some are more convincing than others. But the bottomline is, they simply aren't telling us the sales figures, aren't revealing that there were any increases in support costs, that returns were a problem, or that Microsoft had nothing to do with it.
All we know is that they dropped Linux, that they are a huge Windows retailer, and that some MS rep near Walmart headquarters has them on speed dial.
Didn't the gPC just suck? (Score:1)
A while back, there was a slashdot-linked PC Magazin review [slashdot.org] of that box - and it didn't do so well. Granted, the review might have been a little biased, but not enough to dismiss it entirely.
I imagine that might be a big part of why they're not sold in stores anymore.
Well... (Score:1)
lousy computer + linux == lousy computer (Score:2)
From the specs, and the reviews I've read, it was a lousy computer. When you put Linux on a lousy computer, you have...a lousy computer with Linux it.
I don't understand why so many in the Linux community were pleased by this. Having Linux associated with low-end machines that people buy because they can't afford what the really want does not help Linux. We shouldn't be promoting Linux as the OS for those who have to settle for less.
I bought one, had a bad time... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:WHY Mod Parent Down? (Score:4, Informative)
As for your comments on my post:
1. I personally downloaded...
I couldn't, cuz no working drivers were included with the Linare Linux box, neither for the modem or the built in NIC card.
2.It is quite plausible that there was no gcc....They were only as far away as their repository though.
See my reply to your comment 1. The repository is really really far away if your modem don't work.
3.Their tech support may actually be one guy...
My complaint wasn't so much that there is only one guy, but that he didn't know what Linux was or how to support the box. in other words, the vendor couldn't pass it off as "he's a new guy" or my phone call was "misdirected". The vendor had failed to provide even a marginally acceptable level of support for the product.
Your request for someone to mod me down is unreasonable.
Parent
Not Sold Online Either? (Score:2, Informative)
Not Sold Online.
Huh?
I tried to buy one at my local Walmart (Score:2)
Did Walmart really want to sell the Linux PCs in the first place? If they did, then why were the Linux PCs so hard to find at Walmarts?
Via Isaiah (Score:2)
The existing via is much like a 1.5GHz 486 with a handful of special purpose accelerators. The upcoming Isaiah (one source suggests availability June 2008) should finally kick via up into the 1.5GHz PIII range, at which point, for many purposes, performance is no longer a limiting factor. The rumour is that this new Via offers twice the performance/watt in a drop-in, pin-compatible package.
At long last, these low-end carcasses are becoming quite the interesting niche.
OOS (Score:1)
I bet the # of returns was high (Score:2)
As you can guess, they would get it home and it doesn't look like the Windows they know from work and their old computer. To top that, they can't install Quicken, Civ II, or any other software they bought at the SAME Wal-Mart. I would think that would prompt a lot of returns to show back up at the store.
And regards to many comments about how Wal-Mart doesn't want its staff stuck supporting Linux, do you at all feel they are currently able to support Windows in any capacity?
*head explodes* (Score:1)
Wait, how could you shop online to buy a computer if you didn't have one in the first place? chicken and egg!?!?
aaaaahhh *head explodes*
You don't want Walmart sales staff to sell you (Score:2)
Too many returns? (Score:1)
It doesn't matter how ofter you sell out if 40% are returned because a person finds out he can't run his favorite windows app.
What's the return rate? (Score:1)
Online retailers have always had an edge over brick-n-mortar stores in terms of customer satisfaction. Why? Because the average intelligence (or at least knowledge) of the online buyer is way above that of the person who walks into CompUSA to buy one. (Okay, can't use that one anymore; if you try to walk into a CompUSA building today expecting to buy one, chances are good that you're REALLY lacking intelligence!)
It's Freaking Wal-Mart (Score:1)
Not the least suspicious (Score:1)
Otherwise, what kind of business discontinues a product that sells out?
Business question for 3rd graders:
You run a lemonade stand. Your pink lemonade sells out every day. You:
A) Make more pink lemonade
B) Stop making pink lemonade
Explain your answer.
Walmart? (Score:2, Insightful)
For example, if WM is unable to sell 100% of the product, the vendor has to buy the difference back (via store credit). Or if WM sells the product too quickly, the vendor has to be able to meet the demand. If Everex has problems meeting the demand of the supply, WM may choose to pull that product from it's shelves.
WM's press release may have very little to do with the real reason it was pulled.
Interesting WM story: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html [fastcompany.com]
I bought one of these and I'm not suprised (Score:3, Interesting)
A first-time Linux user would likely be lost with their "experience"....I'd go with Dell if you really need to verify that everything will work with Linux. (Beyond a completely home-brew machine.)
Lack of demand (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Microsoft Bribe? (Score:1)
Parent
Re:Once again... (Score:5, Insightful)
No. That would be the Walmart management that prevailed. Walmart don't care if those Linux systems sell out all the time, because selling these systems in preference to a Windows PC ends up costing them money.
While the Linux users are off using apt-get to download all their packages, Windows users have to return to the store to buy their Anti-virus software, Office packages, games etc. Windows users will continue to generate income long after they have got their neighbor's kid to setup the PC for them.
Sure, there are some Windows users who know about all the free software available for that platform. These people won't generate any extra income for the retailer, but they would not have anyway, so they are out of the equation.
Finally, I have always wondered how many returns they get from people who thought that the computer was faulty because it would not run all their software they already owned. It is possible that Walmart wants to avoid losing good will of their less technically inclined customers who think that they are selling broken PCs
Parent
Re:Once again... (Score:5, Insightful)
They also could have gotten in 5 units and sold 5 units in a single day... not. Because if that were the case they'd keep selling them. Or they could have sold 5 and gotten 4 back once the user found it couldn't run Word and most games, which I could attribute to "This really wasn't what our customers were looking for..."
But the lead says it best. "Computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows didn't attract enough attention from Wal-Mart customers, and the chain has stopped selling them in stores..."
Parent
Re:Once again... (Score:5, Insightful)
lets see
1 insult Walmart management
2 add slightly insightfull comment on-topic
3 imply consiracy against Linux on the desktop
4 insult stereo-typical Walmart customers
5 complain about M$ patented technology
6 get +5 insightfull mod woohooo
Parent
Re:Once again... (Score:4, Insightful)
1) PCs are a commodity business. You don't stick around selling 3 of them in a month.
2) If you're making $1000 off of 3 PCs, I want whoever your marketing guy is.
3) Wal-Mart doesn't order things in 50s. It orders them in thousands.
4) TFA clearly states that Wal-Mart repeatedly sold out of the machines.
Put it together. Wal-Mart has sold thousands of these machines out repeatedly- which means that it has a product whose supplier cannot meet demand. If you're a company that size and want to lose a lot of money, the way to do it is to have to deal with somebody else's god awful supply chain.
Parent
Re:Once again... (Score:5, Insightful)
They only stopped selling them in stores, which sounds to me they will still offer them online.
It seems it was not that much of a non-viable business decision; it merely suffered from anomalies.
Low-end Linux PCs are a rather non-standard item, and my best guess is that most people who'd bought them were geeks who'd wanted a cheap Linux toy. Or to give a computer-illiterate family member a low-end computer.
And they bought them online.
Thus there was a significant disproportion in the numbers of sales — most units were sold online, so of course the execs deemed the online market more profitable for this kind of article. That may prove to be a misguided long-term decision, but it makes perfect sense in short term.
Parent
Re:Once again... (Score:5, Informative)
Almost ALL locations that had them in the stores only stocked 1 or 2. They also did not display them so they were tucked away when they had them. Most of the time they were sold out and the local store manager never had it set up to restock very often so therefore the sales pace in store was slow. Mostly from raw incompetence. I watched 6 local stores around here trying to get one because I was too lazy to buy online and ship to local store. They NEVER had them in stock.
Typical retail games and retail executives making decisions based on bad information created by their own management team.
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Re:Anyone who buys a $200 PC is C-H-E-A-P (Score:1)
(I should link to that naked, bearded fat guy sitting in front of a computer...) But can't be bothered.
To take this post slightly on topic, I see no conspiracy here. The decision process for a huge retailer like Wal-mart is likely quite complex, not to mention unsentimental so if the business-case changes they will re-appear in the physical stores.
Does anyone btw own one of these machines? Are $200 good value for money?
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Re:Microsoft Bribe? (Score:1)
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Re:Microsoft Bribe? (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:Microsoft Bribe? (Score:2)
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