$199 Linux PC Sells Out At Wal-Mart$199 Linux PC Sells Out At Wal-Mart

Maybe open source has a future in the consumer world after all. A Linux-based PC that Wal-Mart began offering earlier this month for $199 is now listed as "Sold Out" on the retailer's Web site.

The Everex TC2502 Green gPC is one of the first Linux-based desktop machines to be offered for sale by a major retailer. As such, it could be an indicator of open source software's potential for success in the consumer market.

If it is, the news is good for Linux lovers. Not only is the gPC sold out online, it's listed as "out of stock" in Wal-Mart stores from New York to Chicago to San Francisco, according to Wal-Mart's Web site.

Wal-Mart officials were not immediately available to answer questions about when, or if, the system will be restocked.

The gPC comes pre-loaded with the gOS operating system -- a Linux variant -- and a 1.5 GHz processor manufactured by Intel clone maker Via Technologies. The rest of the specs include an 80-Gbyte hard drive and 512 Mbytes of DDR 2 memory.

There's no monitor included, but buyers get stereo speakers and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.

As for software, the gPC comes with the free OpenOffice.org 2.2 productivity suite. The suite, which includes word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications, recently won backing from IBM.

Everex is a Taiwanese-based PC maker that's looking to carve a niche for itself as a supplier of low-cost systems. A version of Everex's gPC that runs the basic edition of Microsoft's Windows Vista is on sale at Wal-Mart for $298.