In stock at Circuit City**

Acer netbook with Linpus Linux:
http://us.acer.com/public/page4.do?l...rc=1628973581#

First Linux computer of any kind that I have seen in a retail store. Not surprisingly, the clerk knew nothing about it--or about netbooks in general.

Also of interest: They don't appear to stock the Windows version...

**Major US consumer electronics chain--this particular sighting in the Pasadena, Calif. area.

Wal-Mart tried selling the Everex "Green gPC" that came with Ubuntu (?) for $200. They sold out, but didn't continue the in-store sales. Something about it not being what Wal-Mart customers were looking for. Maybe Circuit City customers will be more likely to be looking for Linux machines.

K-Mart also does or did sell a machine with Linspire. Some Target stores are carrying the ASUS Eee. The one down the street from me does anyway. Both Best Buy and Circuit City have been selling laptops and PC's with Linux for at least a year on their on-line stores. I also saw Ubuntu for $19.99 at my local Best Buy. If you look at the customer reviews of Ubuntu at Best Buy's website you see it has an average rating of 4.7 (out of 5) and only 2 of 32 reviewers wouldn't recommend it to their friends.

Maybe it's those high gas prices driving people to the $20 OS instead of the $200 OS. It's cool to see an international brick and mortar offering a Linux machine. I'll have to stop by my local Circuit City and ask the help a bunch of questions about Linux. Hehehehehe.

Yes, I was aware of Walmart. K-Mart I have not seen in many years.
Must check local Target....

I will definitely go back to Circuit City and and ask a few simple questions. If they don't at least inform customers about how Linux and OpenSource is supported on-line, perhaps I will try to get them to do so.....

That's good idea.

Linpus is a commercial (Taiwanese ???) fork of Redhat. As installed on that machine it doesn't even have access to the "advanced" desktop (it's XFCE). At least here in Aus.
I would find it pretty limiting, but you can use xfce-settings-show to get to what you need. I am looking at something like this to backup my photos when travelling.

It's becoming increasingly common to see Linux powered mini-laptops in shops on the high street. For example, I bought a monitor this weekend at a computer shop called Novatech here in the UK, and they had this for sale: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?NOV-MINIBK

It's clearly going after the EeePC market, but given its cost and the reasonable spec, I don't think it's a bad buy. Looks-wise, I think I prefer my Eee, but it was nearly twice the price. I was also pleased when the original EeePC 701 was on sale in Currys, one of the country's largest electrical retailers. Apparently, they've also started selling the 900's now: http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/stor...&category_oid=.

My girlfriend quite happily uses my EeePC to surf the internet, use email, view photos etc., although she's also quite familiar with my main laptop, running Slackware. In my experience, the big desktops (KDE, Gnome etc.) are all similar enough to Windows' interface that most people get on fine with them, if they even notice they're different.

Ok---I have started some research into how Circuit City is marketing the Acer "Aspire One".

All this in Southern California**

Monrovia:
First sighting, computer on display, but the employee hovering at my side knew absolutely nothing. My very brief conversation with him suggested that continuing would be a waste of time. No time to ask for someone more knowledgeable.

Pasadena:
Scanned the displays, found nothing, then asked. A very friendly and enthusiastic lady first grilled me to be sure that I knew this was not a "real laptop". I replied that "Yes, something that small and cheap might have limitations. Can I see one?" She said that they do not put them on display, and continued with her sermonette explaining all the reasons I might not want it. One statement was something to the effect that "it won't work with a lot of peripherals--eg printers and DVD burners." At this point, I dropped my clueless act, explained that I had extensive experience with Linux, and--in fact--most hardware DOES work. We quickly agreed that the issue is that the box typically does not advertise that it will work with Linux.
One thing that impressed me was that she was quite familiar with the existence of Linux, the fact that the Acer uses it, etc.--She also volunteered that their techs "knew Linux"--even though the store has no other Linux-based products.

Glendale:
The Acer was on display. I tinkered with it for at least 30 minutes, with no store employees anywhere in sight. I had the impression I could have been there 2 hours and no-one would have bothered me. I scanned briefly for someone who looked like their job was to help me. Finding none, I got back on the bus.

So, maybe the marketing is left up to the individual store?? I need to sample a couple more, and then contact Circuit City corporate.


The computer itself is quite slick. The desktop is full of icons labelled by function --eg do you want to surf the web, send e-mail, write a letter, etc. But, key combos don't do what the Linux veteran would expect:
ctrl-alt-del: Brings up the computer monitor--processes, CPU activity, etc.
ctrl-alt-backspace: nothing
ctrl-alt-F1, F2: nothing
AND--after 30 minutes, I could find no way to get to a command line!!!!


**Southern California: A remote western province of the US, regarded by many easterners as almost a foreign country. Home to Disneyland, whose castles were the inspiration for many of the ones found in Europe. The broader region is sometimes referred to as the "left coast" of the US.

Staples in Canada are selling these things. I got much the same sales pitch as pixellany. The young salesman was familiar with linux and had not been able to access the command line or file system on the demo. I didn't get a chance to play with it as the wife was rolling her eyes and wanting to move on to a shoe store ...lol. I like the size advantage of these rigs but would wait for more ram and storage before buying.

My wife and I have an arrangement--noone has to go to any store they don't want to....We would just agree to meet somewhere.

Please support my pending legislation: In any large mall, the following must be provided:
Husband benches
At least one good bookstore
"Boy toy" stores within 1/4 mile of any store selling womens' clothing or shoes

In the US, at least two retailers are working on a partnership: Fry's will put stores next to all Nordstrom Dept. stores:
"Nordies and Nerdies"


I disagree. The target user is just going to do web surfing, e-mail, and maybe backup photos to a USB drive. KISS (and cheap!!)

There is now a post from a user of one of these things.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...8/#post3249769

It looks like we are now seeing a reason why Acer is trying to lock people out of any CLI.

In So Cal, as before:

Circuit City, Burbank:
Nothing on display, but a store employee eagerly plucked one off a shelf and turned it on for me. He and his colleagues seemed quite knowledgable and interested. He was the first to offer that a Windows version with more memory was coming.
He did not know how to get to a CLI.
We talked about the Asus EEE, and they happily volunteered that you could get them at Sam's Club (an arm of Walmart)

Circuit City, Montebello:
Nothing on display "because they've sold out". 1 in stock. Store rep seemed marginally knowledgeable.

I have seen a Nokia N810 at a Palm store at the airport (on an n800 now). I have seen a Linux eeepc at Brandsmart. I have seen the gPC at Walmart (my friend bought one). I've also seen a Lindows computer there at the past.

Slightly unrelated note, I saw 12 Linux and 1BSD magazine at Borders last night.

I'm in the Atlanta area.