Everex introduced last October a $199 Linux desktop with Google software embedded. The sub-$200 Linux-powered "Green gPC" made by Everex of Taiwan went on sale at 600 Wal-Mart stores and online last year, but it was apparently plagued by slow sales.

Now Wal-Mart announced it will drop the item from its stores and will continue to sell online only. "This really wasn't what our customers were looking for," said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien.

The Everex TC2512 Green gPC2 features a 80 GB 7200 RPM hard drive, combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, 512 MB of RAM, a VIA C7-D Processor running at 1.5Ghz, and standard peripherals: speakers, mouse and keyboard, with the monitor not included.

Paul Kim, brand manager for Everex, said selling their Linux-powered gPC online was "significantly more effective" than selling it in physical stores. It appears that the lack of Windows plagued the interesting offer, because people would rather pay $100 more to have access to an operating system they already know. However, a Linux system usually runs much smoother on a striped down hardware configuration such as these low-end machines, which made them perfect for browsing and using an office suite.

The gOS Linux distribution is based on Ubuntu Linux. However, gOS is heavily geared toward Google's Web sites and online applications, like YouTube, Gmail and the company's word processing program, all of which can be used only when the computer is connected to a broadband line. The gOS also comes with the preinstalled freeware office suite OpenOffice.org 2.2 (which includes WRITER, IMPRESS, nMATH, DRAW, CALC and BASE).

Everex ("Ever for Excellence") was established in 1983 and is headquartered in Fremont, California. The company was market leader in backup tape drives in the 80s but folded and went bankrupt in 1993. It was subsequently acquired by the Formosa Plastics Group.