Wal-Mart Sells PCs Preloaded With Sun's Linux 617
badboy3062 writes "Wal-Mart this week started selling Microtel PCs preloaded with Sun's Java Desktop System. Prices start at under $300 for a system without a floppy drive or monitor. Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice president for software, says this move is just another step in its plan to gain new audiences for its technologies."
Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Funny)
It kind of pains me to see this. Why does a store that I hate have to go and do something that smacks of coolness? Why couldn't it be Target or KMart?
And isn't Microtel a motel chain?
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Funny)
No, KMart is the kingdom of the grand high demon queen who seeks to subjugate the world with cheap mechandise and tips on being a housewife. It is a realm of pure evil ruled by a merciless overlord whose very looks can slay the living... or at least turn them into a tastefully tacky center piece.
She carves doilies out of the flesh of the living, makes mobiles out of their entrails, and bakes their bones into wedding cakes. Fear her, the bringer of doom, lest she varnish her deck chairs in your blood!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sun Java Desktop's package management (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Insightful)
And yes [microtelinn.com], yes it is.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Insightful)
The real goal is to have people see Linux as a viable alternative, not a cheap Windows imitation or some eccentric thing the government uses.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:3, Informative)
While I see the Java Desktop System as a good start, I am not sure the timing for consumer release is ideal. Certainly these systems will satisfy office application needs, web surfing, and multi-media, but for many consumers, the game titles on the system are important. If I can't get the next release of my favori
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't be so quick to write this off. They are truly offering what everyone has been asking for: CHOICE. Hell, I HATE Wal*Mart, but I give 'em kudos for this.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess if you are accusing me of being not the normal consumer for these machines, I'll agree, but I am a software developer, I (my company) just bought a dell, and I want nothing to do with XP. If we could have purchased the box without the XP license we would have but we were required to get the license.
I build my home machines, but for work, I take what I can con the IT group into ordering for me - which is 'standard dell minitower' in our internal ordering form.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:3, Insightful)
although what will happen when a regular joe finds they cant put AOL on their new budget PC? they'll buy a more expensive one that "works".
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:3, Informative)
Must... Not... Defend... Walmart... (Score:4, Interesting)
True, all of these are cheaper than Windows (except for, of course, Windows), but if all Walmart was interested in was being Cheap, they would all be using Lindows (remember flat rate licensing?). The inclusion of Lycoris and Sun Java Desktop is an indication that they see value in having a variety of Linux desktops available.
Now, it may very well be that they simply contract out through individual companies, so that if someone wants to sell a Lycoris desktop through Walmart.com it presents no risk to Walmart, but that doesn't mean Walmart is inherently exploitive.*
*on this particular issue.
Re:Must... Not... Defend... Walmart... (Score:3, Funny)
A while back Microsoft decided to forbid the sale of boxes without an OS. Walmart in turn decided the best way to get around this was to sell boxes with a copy of FreeDOS on a floppy. Microsoft relented.
It's nice when an evil monopolistic 900 lb gorilla gets beaten down by another evil monopolistic 900 lb gorilla. It's like that Godzilla vs Gamara movie, except that we like Godzilla and Gamara.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:4, Insightful)
But how much luxury is it? When I bought my first IBM compatible in 1989, the guy offered to knock $50 off if we went with PC-DOS (or was it DR-DOS) instead of MS-DOS. My dad got pretty pissed at the assumption that he couldn't afford the market leader in software when he was shelling out $2000 for a top of the line 386DX40 (AMD!) with a genuine SoundBlaster 8 bit soundcard. And the difference there was much more subtle...you could run pretty much any MS-DOS app on the alternative OS. You can't do that with Windows and Linux. It's not the difference between power windows or the crank. It's the difference between driving on the interstate, or having to drive backroads all the time. That's one hell of a decision for $50.
Do we really want Linux and Java to be known as the ghetto class solution? Is the benefit of "availability" in Wal-Mart worth the detriment of association with Wal-Mart, especially considering you can't buy a single Linux program at Wal-Mart?
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gog vs Magog! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:3, Informative)
The 2nd def. in the dictionary of "smack" is "To have or exhibit indications of the presence of any character or quality."
So by "smacks of coolness" I just mean that it's something that indicates coolness, but that doesn't mean that it is, indeed, cool.
Like when Duncan says to the injured sergeant, "So well thy words become thee, as they wounds; they smack of honor, both." Just gives the appearance, you know?
Ich hab' eine Idee... (Score:5, Insightful)
Selling *anything* at WallyWorld practically guarantees broad exposure in markets that a vendor might not otherwise reach. Imagine if - years ago - you could have walked into [that store] and picked up an Ultra 10. I use the U10 as an example because it is/was essentially a low-end, mass-marketed (sort of) item from the Sun line. Wal-mart would be unlikely to carry the Ultra 60 just like they are unlikely to carry gigantic plasma TVs: the clientele probably are not the ones to buy high-end merchandise (or at least not buy it there).
PS Microtel makes very, very small communications devices. You're welcome.
What you're missing (Score:5, Informative)
Sun as the biggest Linux vendor. (Score:5, Interesting)
I think Sun is serious about becoming the biggest Linux vendor, as they suggested a year ago with their china deal [techworld.com] where McNealy said "This, I believe, makes us instantaneously the number one Linux desktop play in the planet."
If they're going for volume, you can't beat Wal*Mart and China.
Re:Sun as the biggest Linux vendor. (Score:4, Interesting)
That said, it is more likely that if Sun ever reached a monopoly in place of Windows they would -open source- Java than start charging for it. 1) to avoid anti-trust issues and 2) to endear themselves further.
The reason Sun doesn't open it is because it would immediately be abused, forked and made trivial by the existing monopolistic folks. It would be another case of a bastardized JVM that polluted the development story for Java.
Seriously, it took Sun and Microsoft years to fight that battle
Does Sun want the power you mention? What company doesn't? And it would corrupt Sun just like it did Microsoft. But until that becomes an issue it is better for MS's competition if Java stays as is.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Wal-Mart also sells a good-quality, extremely easy-to-hack DVD player with digital sound output and S-Video out... for $30.
I don't get all this hatred of Wal-Mart. Sure, some of what they sell is cheap crap, but for the most part they seem to be pretty much the same as any discount retail chain. (And though it pains me to say so as a Minnesotan, their prices are usually better than Target's.)
Is it the stigma of it being a chain that grew out of the rural midwest and South? Is it the result of people buying into the "OMG, they're killing the small-towns" nonsense? What's the problem? Seriously.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, if you care, do a search and educate yourself. It's not hard to find -- the web is literally covered with anti-WalMart material.
Re:Why Wal*Mart? Gott in Himmel, why? (Score:4, Informative)
My plant supplies WalMart and they suddenly wanted us to supply in (much) more expensive packaging and told us it had to be at the same price as the old packaging. We went to the Wal Mart buyer with the facts of what the new packaging would cost and they were OK with a price increase representing the increased cost. My experience is that they are good business people and they expect their suppliers to be good. If you can't supply quality product on time and at a competitive cost, you won't be a WalMart supplier.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You are a guest there (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, not all of the camera domes you see in the ceiling have cameras in them.
That being said, I once had one of the Wal*Mart greeters chase me out into the parking lot and demand that I return inside the store because I apparently set off "Wal*Mart's inventory control system!". She refused to tell me why I needed to go back inside, so I shrugged and walked away. A plainclothesd LP came up to my drivers window as I was about to pull off. I told her she was free to ask her question in the parking lot, but I would not be inconvenienced to return inside the store unless she could give me a good reason. She told me they were calling the cops. I handed her my driver's license, said "Write down my name, go watch your videotape, and decide if you need to call the cops", took it back and drove away.
The funny thing was the reaction of the cops when I called them warning them that Wal*Mart was going to call them, and I gave them the full story. The copy who answered the phone had kind of an exasperated sound. "Yeah, they do that sort of stuff all the time", he told me.
Go figure.
Speaking of cameras, some Best Buy stores actually track 1 in 50 or so customers from entrance to exit for marketing purposes. You won't see the typical big black camra domes, instead there are little white camera domes on the trusswork, very, very inconspicuous. They're a few meters apart and completely blanket the store. (You should see the racks they go back to, it's insane) It's not in every store, but they tell me that the watch where you go, what you pick up, what you actually buy, etc.
Kinda scary really.
Dell Poweredge Server (Score:5, Informative)
Intel P4 2.4 Ghz
40 GB Hard Drive
128 MB Memory
Floppy Drive
48x CD-ROM
($379-$100 mail in rebate) I hate mail in rebates!!!!
This is basically a low-end desktop with no OS. Load your favorite distro and there you go!!
I think it's great that a company is selling computers preloaded with Linux but this really isn't news.
Walmart's bigger than Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
The other computer OEMs haven't done it. They're not big enough to say "screw you, MS, were not paying $100/license"
WalMart is extremely interested in delivering the lowest price to their consumers, and removing the Microsoft OS is one way to do it.
Mixed feelings about this. (Score:5, Insightful)
This sounds great at first glance but my gut feeling is that most of these units sold will be reformatted with Windows. That's the ugly truth methinks.
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Why would you buy a Walmart PC with Linux on it for $300 and then go out and buy Windows for $150+ when you could just go buy a Dell with Windows XP preloaded on it for under $400? Unless you're planning on a five-finger discount on the Windows license it'd be more to buy a Linux box and put a non-OEM copy of Windows on it.
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:4, Funny)
Methinks you answered your own question...
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:3, Funny)
only metrosexuals call their machines boxen.
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, it's frightening the lengths people will go to to avoid paying their $699 licensing fee.
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:5, Interesting)
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This sounds great at first glance but my gut feeling is that most of these units sold will be reformatted with Windows. That's the ugly truth methinks.
Actually I think you may be wrong. I had the misfortune (ok to be fair at least it was a job and kept me fed) of working at Wal-mart for a year and a half. For much of that time I was in Electronics, and even after I was moved to checkouts the Electronics people were known to call me or bring customers up for me to answer their computer questions. Frankly the vast majority of these people (all your average joe non-techy person) could have cared less what OS they had as long as it WORKED. If the Sun Desktop works well and does the things Average Joe Consumer wants (which are web surfing, E-mail and possibly chat mainly) then the customers likely won't even notice it's not Windows on their computer.And to be honest (not trying to be mean) most of those Average Joe Consumers couldn't reformat a system and put Windows on it if their lives and the life of their first-born child depended on it. Whatever it comes with will be what it stays with.
Now it will be interesting to see if they pack in restore CDs for them, HP in particular is really bad about forgetting them, even with only a 15 day time-period for in-store returns we took back so many HPs for exchange because of missing restore CDs it wasn't funny. I believe we had more computers stacked in claims than on the sales floor most of the time.
One amusing tidbit I had\ve to mention, wonder how long it'll be before Wal-mart realizes it'll be really easy to take a stylized sun and put their smiley face in the middle.
Re:Mixed feelings about this. (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder if MS-fans cried whenever I bought an e-machine and formatted it as soon as I opened the box?
Likely not. You paid the MS tax on your e-machine before you got it home from the store.
Subscription? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because if so, there's going to be a lot of unpatched Linux boxes out there in a year or so.
Re:Subscription? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Subscription? (Score:3, Informative)
So, in other words you don't know and your post isn't really informative after all. What the poster was asking is if patches are available free of charge without having to get a subscription. The answer is yes but only for one year [sun.com]. You have to register with your serial number before the updater that retrieves the patches will work. A year after registering you must purchase support to continue to receive patches. I was unable to find more d
No floppy?! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:No floppy?! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No floppy?! (Score:5, Insightful)
and we all know that viruses can't be tranferred by email or a USB drive. i do agree that floppies are out dated and error prone, but getting rid of floppies isn't going to stop kids bringing in viruses.
Re:No floppy?! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No floppy?! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No floppy?! (Score:5, Insightful)
How much does it have to add to hit your profits on a $300 item? Say they make a 10% profit, that's $30, say the floppy drive costs $3. Not including the drive would increase profits by 10%. If a 10% increase in profits doesn't sound appealing to you then I'm going to guess that nobody lets you make those sorts of decisions.
It's profit, and support. (Score:3, Interesting)
There are a limited number of moving parts in those computers. A floppy drive is a moving part and the only one (other than the CD) that the user is expected to jam things into.
Not including it does boost profits.
-and-
Not including it means one less thing that is likely to break and result in a phone call and/or replacement.
When you're looking at profits that small per unit, you do
WalMart Link and Accessories They Recommend (Score:5, Funny)
And here is the link [walmart.com] to the accessory they recommend for this item (guess who).
I don't know whether this is informative or humorous. I chuckled and shook my head at the same time.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Accessories We Recommend for This Item (Score:4, Funny)
HAHAHAHAHAH
What's so 'Java' about it? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if it's bundled with 'digital ready' speakers.
Re:What's so 'Java' about it? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's so 'Java' about it? (Score:3, Interesting)
We also have some 500 pilots of our Java Desktop System and the Java Enterprise System now running across the world...
They're certainly eager to encourage confusion of the Java Desktop with Java, aren't they? The article has a number of statements like that.
(The Java Enterprise System _does_ have something to do with Java, doesn't it? I went to their site but couldn't get one shred of meaningful information from it. Also, if I were them, I'd be less enthuisiastic about bragging about the
Re:What's so 'Java' about it? (Score:3, Informative)
Hey and just for fun, poke through and see if you can find the apps that are Swing based...
link to systems (Score:5, Informative)
as low as $288
Re:link to systems (Score:5, Informative)
More details here (Score:3, Informative)
What Walmart has to say about this computer.... (Score:5, Interesting)
"Sun has delivered the first viable Microsoft Windows alternative. The Java desktop system is a more affordable, secure desktop, designed to thrive in a Windows-centric world and run thousands of Java technology-based applications."
It goes on and on, including mentioning that it comes with StarOffice, it can exchange files with MS Office, it isn't prone to viruses, etc. They really are doing a good job at selling this to the average person and letting them know that there is a pretty viable option to Windows (other than mac of course)
Walmart (Score:5, Funny)
Oh nooo (Score:5, Funny)
PC support (Score:4, Funny)
"Hello AOL internet support, how can I help you?"
"I just bought this PC from wallmart and I can't check my mail"
JDS (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm actually curious because I had the same idea, but didn't investigate it far enough to see if SUN was willing to cut OEM customers a break. It would be nice to advertise a SUN operating system that everyone is hearing so much about rather than the scary (to small customers) Linux.
Re:JDS (Score:3, Informative)
The Java Enterprise System is subscription based. The Java Desktop System is a pay once model - about $70 USD I believe. And since it's based on SUSE, you can then upgrade however you want (or know how to do). Or you can wait until the next version of the JDS come out. Or you can wait until Looking Glass come out and upgrade then.
This is really no different that the Windows boxes the sell. What's better, Linux on the desktop will get MASSIVE penetration thanks to Walmart. It will be pre-loaded so Lin
Linux on the shelves (Score:5, Interesting)
Walmart equals a win for linux (Score:5, Interesting)
In other news, see my artist interview at fulcrum gallery [fulcrumgallery.com].
Walmart allways wins, So what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Walmart likes to help its vendors... at first. They worked exclusively with Tide to see if they could reducce their operating costs. Great, Tide now operated more efficently as a compnay. Then Walmart introduced Great Value Liquid Clothes detergent (compare with Tide!). Walmart might be working with Sun, but noting that they are essentially just selling a free OS, Its just a mater of time before Walmart introduces the even lower cost Great Value Linux . It will happen, believe you me.
Re:Walmart allways wins, So what? (Score:3, Insightful)
Even then, you're paying for the "slap" step. Who decides what packages get included by default? What version of Debian? KDE or Gnome? Which default web browser? Which default mail program? Does the shipped kernel provide full support for every bit of hardware on the system?
Then, you have to pay someone to regression-test new packages and security updates to be reasonably sure that pushing a bugfix to your customers won't result in tens of thousands of disab
Re:Walmart equals a win for linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Sound of music in this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Could this mean they'll get a clue and make their music store compatible with the computing systems they sell?
(Perhaps maybe around the time when we see Mac OS X run natively on a Microtel PC).
Price went up? (Score:3, Informative)
Oh well. Still better than paying the Microsoft tax.
Got Root? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Got Root? (Score:5, Informative)
No, you guessed wrong. Well, I suppose you can't prevent a naive user from doing this, but JDS is based on SuSE, and SuSE requires you to define a non-root user at install time, telling you noisily that this is the account you should be using most of the time. So chances are good that most novice users will end up doing the right thing (it seems to work for SuSE, at any rate).
Heard good things (Score:5, Interesting)
Basically, I like the idea of using the same distribution for the server and my desktop. I can install SuSE on everything from my desktop to the Dell blade servers that I install, and it just works. This is very appealing, since I can become familiar with the environment by using it on my desktop in addition to the server.
When I went to price out one of Sun's new AMD systems, I was somewhat disappointed. First of all, the website does not give the level of detail that Dell's does. I want to know everything about the system from ram speed, to hd speed, to bus speed, etc. Then, I want much more ability to configure scsi, ide, raid levels, etc. On top of that, it was pretty expensive. You can get a dual xeon dell with 2GB of ram, 15K rpm scsi for about $1,000 less than a bare bones sun with an amd chip. For what it's worth, IBM is much worse in this regard when pricing any of their systems online. I think they're even more expensive and the website sucks way more.
Then, you have the option basically for solaris x86 (32 bit) or supplying your own SuSE 64 bit (community edition, whatever that means), or RedHat enterprise.
My conclusion is that Sun is still not going after the low end. I don't know if they just can't get the economies of scale or what, but don't sell an entry level server and pretend that you're going to offer a "premium" entry level server when the website is worse, you have fewer config options, and the price is way more than can be justified.
That said, I hope they read this stuff and adapt. How hard can it be to provide an entry level server when plenty of white box places do it even cheaper than Dell??? I can't even imagine what you get for the premium price tag.
Still, I would love the idea if they gave me a Java Server system with Linux on the bottom of the stack with Java completely installed, configured, and supported, and the option for the Java Enterprise system on top of it. What's with their affinity for Solaris, especially on the low end servers? Even if it's better in some regards, it's not as familiar, performs worse, is difficult to get app support for, etc. Give me the real deal please, which for me is Linux.
Re:Heard good things (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Close, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Close, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
People who shop at Walmart will buy and use whatever PC is cheap and gets them on the Internet-thingy and lets them do e-mail. They could care less about Microsoft, Open source, Sun or ESR.
Remember, these are the people that think "Microsoft Windows" is their word processor...they don't know what an operating system is. The can, however, tell the difference between having to pay $350 (for Word) and $0 (for OpenOffice.org/StarOffice, included in the JDS) or having to pay $150 (for a Windows upgrade down the road) and $0 to $70 (for an upgrade of Linux/JDS when they want it).
And when their kids grow up, which OS do you think they'll use and trust?
On your first WalMart PC service call (Score:5, Funny)
The PC is up on blocks.
The case has a shotgun rack
The customer wears a wife-beater shirt with a penguin on the front.
There are dipstick oil marks on the floppy drive.
The hard drive is full of Johnny Cash MP3s.
The case is modded with a transparent confederate flag window.
The mousepad is red and black plaid.
Traces of pig feces on the keyboard.
The open source internet browser default page is www.y'all.com.
The USB port cover panel is welded shut.
The wallpaper on the desktop is of a scanned black velvet Elvis painting.
The case has a side-mounted spitoon.
The customer added an 8-track tape player in one of the drive bays.
There are John Deer stickers on the case.
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Good for standard PC uses (Score:4, Insightful)
As such it should handle what most people use a PC for pretty well - internet, e-mail, chatting, letter to the bank manager.
You don't need Windows XP for these tasks.
Now the price is a bit high given the hardware - you could build the same for a lot less, but Walmart will be making a slice and Sun will be too I imagine.
And these boxes will be faster than 2.8GHz Celeron boxes judging from reviews online.
I have bought a boat load of these things (Score:5, Informative)
It's not that prominent (Score:3, Interesting)
More interesting is that WalMart is preloading OpenOffice on their low-end Windows PCs. That's will accelerate OpenOffice deployment. Lots of kids are going to be doing their book reports on OpenOffice.
These Microtels are NOISY (Score:4, Informative)
Not bad for under $300, but, as always, you get what you pay for.
Why don't we have boxes with external (fanless - noiseless) power supplies? Everything that goes on inside the box is low voltage DC, right?
Re:These Microtels are NOISY (Score:3, Informative)
Overall, a lot of bang for 300 bucks.
Re:Who buys a PC at wallmart? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who buys a PC at wallmart? (Score:4, Insightful)
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What's up with everyone wanting to put their linux stuff in walmart? Does it actually amount to sales? My guess is that having something to sell in Wallmart is more about PR than sales.
Wal-mart appears to not be very pro-windows, their back-end systems all appear to be Unix or a linux/bsd-based variant. In fact the handheld units on the floor run a version of linux (watching them do a reload is entertaining actually). Wal-mart has also been pushing towards this for quite a while, they want things at the lowest price to pass along savings. Right now in low-end PCs the single largest cost factor is the OS when you have Windows. These systems are fairly comparable to the $499 systems they've had from HP & eMachines, but the only real difference is the OS and they're over $200 cheaper each! Business-wise, especially for Wal-mart buy cheap then pass along savings business plan, going with a non-Windows based PC is a no-brainer.Re:Who buys a PC at wallmart? (Score:4, Insightful)
If I had to guess, it's because Wal-Mart is the only retail outlet that a certain monopolist [microsoft.com] can't bully. The reason Linux OS's are showing up there is that Wal-Mart doesn't care if they piss off the folks in Redmond.
--Mid
Re:Floppy (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bad Idea. (Score:4, Insightful)
For the browser/shopper the Linux box is almost ideal- no viruses, no un-necessary software and they can type letters, browse the internet and listen to streaming radio. It's all my Mother does and she's on Linux.
So if she can use it (and she's really not technical) then most people should get by.
Re:Amusing...Walmart puts doubt it itself. :) (Score:3, Informative)
Re:useless hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Eating Own Dogfood Test? (Score:5, Informative)
I hate to burst your bubble, but having worked for Sun for the last 2 years, I can tell you that Sun does a pretty good job of keeping their own employees using Sun software. This includes Star Office and Solaris. Most Sun offices use SunRay terminals hooked to a Sun Enterprise server. They run StarOffice 7 on top of Solaris 9. This makes it pretty easy for a Mac geek like me to open work documents using OpenOffice on OS X. In fact, up until very recently it was a fireable offence to even install Windows XP on any work computer. They were pretty worried about all of the privacy issues in XP and didn't want MS stealing corporate secrets through some unknown backdoor. Now, they allow you to run XP only if you run some script called XP Neuter first.
If anything, things are the other way around here, simply because of the NIH (not invented here) syndrome. Sun employees tend to be extremely anti-MS and anti-IBM, and most would not run MS Office or even Internet Explorer unless they were forced to by some management directive.
About the Java Desktop rollout: I can't speak for those in large Sun offices like Broomfield, CO and Burlington, MA; they may be running it already, but out in the small field offices it hasn't been rolled out yet. I haven't had a chance to preview it yet with the LiveCD thingy, but I would imagine within a year or so everyone will be running it.
Re:Eating Own Dogfood Test? (Score:4, Interesting)
As a Sun employee that DOES work in Broomfield, I can wholeheartedly confirm we've been using this for some time. Moreover, I work in a particular building on the campus that has its own Sunray network. We're mandated to use this special network, which contains just about everything on the bleeding edge that Sun has to offer, including the next unreleased version of Solaris and StarOffice, so we get to deal with the problems before the customers do.
So just to add emphasis to your statement, is Sun "eating its own dog food"? Damn right it is.