Wal-Mart sells PCs with Sun's Linux
Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, has begun selling Microtel PCs that come with Sun Microsystems' version of the Linux operating system.
"We are seriously considering Wal-Mart to be the PC supplier for Sun Microsystems," Jonathan Schwartz, head of Sun's software group, said in a meeting with reporters here Tuesday. Separately, he said an unnamed European bank is using Sun's Linux software for 10,000 tellers.
Sun makes its money chiefly by selling servers--powerful networked computers--but is using the Linux operating system as a tool to expand its attacks on Microsoft and PC makers. But it's not just a Linux strategy: The company's Linux-based Java Desktop System software product in the future will also be available with the company's Solaris version of the Unix operating system.
The PCs join several other Microtel Linux models that Wal-Mart has sold, including models with Novell's SuSE Linux, along with Lycoris and Lindows.
There are several models ranging from $298 to $698. The $398 Microtel SYSWM8003 comes with an Advanced Micro Devices Athlon XP 2400+ processor, 128MB of memory, a CD-ROM drive, a 40GB hard drive and Sun's StarOffice software suite--but no monitor. The $698 SYSWM8006 has Intel's Pentium 4 processor, 256MB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, and a CD-RW-DVD combination drive.
Desktop Linux is heating up, as companies launch increasingly bold attacks on the stronghold of Microsoft Windows.
