Fishing for Linux iron in the mainstream isn't as hard as it used to be.
By now we all know about Wal-Mart's vetting of el-cheapo Linux boxes on the company Web site, where shelf space is virtually infinite. (They permute in Lindows and Mandrake varieties that start at $199.86.)
Stores are another matter. Jeff Gerhardt of The Linux Show reported a couple weeks back that some Wal-Mart retail outlets are also starting to sell some of the same gear, perhaps on a trial basis.
But if you want some Linux iron from a Big Box retailer, one place to go is Fry's Electronics, which has 20 stores in California, Arizona, Oregon, Texas and Florida. That's one message in the company's latest 4-page, 4-color color newspaper ad in the Los Angeles Times. In that ad, two of the three top featured hardware items are Intel PCs featuring the Thiz Linux distro and selling for $279.99 and $499.99.
The first box is a 1.1GHz Celeron box with 128MB SDCRAM, 20GB HD, 52x CD Rom, 10/100 Fast Ethernet, 56k modem, Thiz Linux and "Many software applications prebundled including Word Processor, Spreadsheet, HTML editor, graphics editors, web browsers, lots of games and more!" The price includes a $120 Instant Gift Rebate.
The second box is a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 with a 30GB HD. The other stuff is the same. That price also includes a rebate.
Neither machine has a brand name, although Fry's gives each a "Great Quality" seal. (Well, maybe that's the brand. Hard to tell.)
On the Web, Fry's is now Outpost.com (or vice versa). Here the top item featured on the home page is an eMachines box for $499 that offers all the same hardware as the $499 box in the store; but with Windows XP along with a minimum software bundle (Works, Money, browser, etc.) No Linux.
Of course, you can take care of that.
If you search for Linux stuff at Fry's Outpost and sort by price, you won't find any computers. Here the high price stuff is software. The most expensive item is IBM's Small Business Suite for Linux v1.6 at $499.99, and next is Red Hat Linux 7.3 Pro at $199.99.
Of course the selection of no-name (and even brand name) Linux hardware is limitless outside of mainstream retail chains. But chances are your mom still shops the big retail stores.
These latest developments hasten the day when your mom sees more Linux than Windows when she strolls the aisles at Circuit City or Sears.