Do you really believe people will routinely pay to have two different OS installed on their PCs one after the other? Chuckle. The only people I know who do that are computer geeks and desperate people. The population of Brazil is not magically computer geekish and they certainly are not desperate. They have choice on their retail shelves.

Yes they still sell them with windows installed.

“Walmart sells a ton of GNU/Linux PCs in Brazil”

Most of which are probably paved over with windows as soon as possible after purchase.

You tell us, Pogson! Because to me it seems that neither Walmart nor other retailers will fall for the lofty fantasies of self-crowned desktop prophets who claim for the “umpteenth” time that Linux is ready for the desktop.

Linux, or more precisely, the Linux ecosystem is not ready for the desktop.

But yes, I’m all for it. Let Walmart sell PCs with Linux pre-installed. Customers will return the suckers in spades.

Nope but I am pretty sure Walmart sells nothing they don’t buy in bulk. Their whole business is based on high volume at low prices. When Walmart moved into Canada there was lots of information about their practices like just-in-time delivery. You cannot do that buying in small quantities. I shop in several places from time to time and Walmart is the second busiest right after SuperStore. Walmart is the largest retailer on Earth. Look at those trucks lined up…

Hmmm. Tablets have mostly switched to Android/Linux 4.x and are selling quite well.

” 1.3 million activations a day, which includes around 70,000 tablets (“We were late to them”, notes Schmidt) every 24 hours”

70K seems small compared to 1.3 million but in a year that’s 25.5 million. Walmart would like a piece of that and they are selling better than iPads at Walmart.

DisplaySearch predicts 130 million tablets will sell in 2012. Android/Linux is getting 25.5/130 million = 20% of them. That’s not too shabby. Expect Android/Linux to keep growing, too.

Awhile ago I read a New York Times article about Wal-Mart dropping the Amazon Kindle. I instantly though of you when I read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/business/wal-mart-stores-dropping-amazon-kindle-tablets-and-e-readers.html?_r=0

Moreover, the Kindle line, and most tablets, are only marginally profitable for retailers, said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research.

“A lot of them have had it with tablets other than the iPad,” she said. “They’re not high-margin products, and other than Apple ones, no one is selling these devices in great volumes anyway. For Wal-Mart to drop Amazon is more of a symbolic blow rather than a substantive one.”

Android is not perceived as Linux.”

Android is not that other OS. Android is not perceived as that other OS. Get over it. People can and do use another OS. And it is */Linux. Everyone in the supply-chain realize that they can live without that other OS. That makes M$’s grip on the markets more tenuous. How long do you think Walmart will tolerate desktop PCs taking space in their stores without selling before Walmart tries GNU/Linux again, especially after the roaring success of Android/Linux? I would bet this Christmas is M$’s last shot at keeping those shelves locked.

Android is not Linux.

Android is not perceived as Linux.

People who buy Android tablets or smartphones buy Android tablets or smartphones. They don’t magically associate them with Linux.

Face it, Mr. Pogson, there is no reciprocal effect.

You try to paint it that way, because you’ve seen Desktop Linux go bye-bye, even though you claim that the 1-2 percent statistics are totally misleading. You know it to be true, otherwise you wouldn’t be betting all your horses on Android and smart thingies.