Wal-Mart decided this week to stop selling Linux PCs in their stores due to “lack of interest” from consumers. They will continue to sell them online. With this news it seems that the future for desktop Linux may be uncertain again.

Personally I think desktop Linux has come a long way. I’ve tried multiple distributions of Linux over the years, and there has been a huge improvement. In early Linux distributions you had to know the details of your hardware just to install Linux and the X Window system. However, in modern distributions like Ubuntu which have what are called “Live CDs”, which let you boot Linux from a CD and play with it without installing it.

As for computers pre-loaded with Linux, the Asus EeePC Notebook is selling very well. This may have more to do with it being an almost UMPC-sized notebook at a very reasonable price. Although it ships pre-loaded with Linux, it also comes with drivers and instructions installing for Windows XP, so users have the option of installing their own copy of Windows XP. From what I’ve read, a number of users have done just that. Personally I think it has one of the friendliest Linux distributions which is tweaked for the hardware and boots really fast. Other than that, I only have one PC which dual boots Windows XP and Kubuntu 6.06, which needs to be upgraded.

Posted on March 12th, 2008 by mervyn