You might have read all over internet that Walmart had discontinued selling Linux based gPC. Matt Asay has posted a blog at CNet that raised some valid points about Walmart’s decision to discontinue gPC. Here are some notable points from his blog:
- How come there’s no customer demand when early reports suggested that the machine was constantly out of stock? — Even if you say that might be due to Linux enthusiasts buying the product, Walmart should have waited for few more months before they pulled the plug (if the sales were really bad).
- There’s a strong executive ties between Walmart and Microsoft. Microsoft COO Kevin Turner was former Walmart executive.
- Whenever Walmart took a step towards Linux or open source, Microsoft was there to stop that.
- Walmart could use SUSE Linux due to Novell and Microsoft’s alliance.
I’m not sure how true it is that Microsoft could be behind Walmart’s decision, but the speed with which Walmart pulled the plug on gPC, it might be true.
I agree.
I’d expect Microsoft to work to have them pulled, and these points here make that seem even more reasonable.