Wal-Mart pulls out the gOS bundled Everex computers from retail shops

I read on ZDNet that the manufacturer should worry because it affects the image of Linux. The quote that disturbed me was:

“No, it’ll be remembered as a Linux failure, and that’s a shame.”

Hmmm. I think that it doesn’t really have to come to that. Linux wouldn’t be a failure per se because it’s the laptops that didn’t sell. It’s the entire package that could possibly be considered as a failure. For one thing, selling computers with bundled operating systems could be considered as a risk that they took because of the customers’ comfort level with buying something they’re not sure of. So if you ask me, the quote wasn’t quite right. It’s not fair to write something like that.

To compare, I think that one advantage of the Asus EEE is possibly the use of a color scheme that’s familiar to users of Windows XP. Sometimes the perception of something familiar helps a product, and in this case, an operating system and its desktop environment.

Maybe the bad thing about the entire thing is that Wal-Mart pulled out their stocks from their shelves. But it’s not all bad considering that there would be people who’d look for it online anyway.

Some people posted comments on the blog entry and some said that computers should not be sold as Linux PCs. They should probably be sold as plain machines without the bundled OS so that consumers have more freedom. Though it should probably be fine, the advantage of having a pre-installed OS is that the consumers should be able to use the machines immediately. Even if I agree that there should be freedom of choice in terms of the combination of computers and OSes, it might not be feasible at the moment.

What do you think?