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["Alan MacHett" <machett AT ibiblio.org>]

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/04/01/wal.mart.linux.ap/index.html
>
> Wal-Mart offering PCs running Sun's Linux software
> Thursday, April 1, 2004 Posted: 1646 GMT (0046 HKT)
>
> SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- In an invasion of Microsoft Corp.'s home
> turf, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s version of Linux operating system is now
> available on inexpensive personal computers sold at Wal-Mart's online
> store.
>

Linux for the masses.  As much as I hate WalMart, if they can put Linux
into the average (which is not to say middle class) household, then kudos
to them.  The effect will be neither apparant nor immediate.  Mom and Dad
might not necessarily get the advantage or even understand anything beyond
the gui desktop, but imagine the effect 10 years from now of innumerable
households of kids messing around with a command line.

Or should I assume the kids will be just as apathetic or uninterested?

I'd like to be optimistic on this.  The issue at hand, though, is the
accessibility.  We've been discussing refrigerators and garbage cans that
will reorder food for us, but that kind of technology is meant for and
priced at the middle and upper classes.  And I don't mean "meant for" as
in the lower class doesn't deserve it, rather "meant for" as in the people
dreaming up these technologies aren't considering whether or not someone
earning $10k, $15K, or $20k can or would ever use the technology.  That, I
believe, is the interesting facet of this Sun-WalMart deal.  For $300, not
only can a low-income family obtain a computer, but they can get one
running a "geeky" or "cutting-edge" OS (""... as in the popular mindset).

Anyone care to be optimistic with me?

-Alan