Walmart.com to sell stand-alone LindowsOS

Walmart.com has begun selling Lindows.com's Linux-based operating system, the first stand-alone operating system not made by Microsoft to be featured at Wal-Mart's online store.

LindowsOS 3.0 Membership Edition is available at Walmart.com for US$98.72. The operating system comes with a one-year membership to the Lindows.com Warehouse, a collection of over 1,700 software programs. The membership lets users download any of the Warehouse programs for free and keep them for life.

Available programs include the office suite StarOffice 6.0 from Sun Microsystems, which normally retails for US$75, the Bitstream Deluxe Font Pack, which costs US$99, as well as many other programs for things such as creating and editing multimedia files and for managing personal finances, from a wide variety of software developers. A one-year access to the Lindows.com Warehouse normally costs US$99.

The LindowsOS also includes support for Microsoft file types, including for Word, Excel and PowerPoint file types.

Lindows.com also announced that Walmart.com is now selling 16 Microtel Computer Systems PCs loaded with LindowsOS 3.0 and LindowsOS MP3.com Edition, a version of the operating system which comes with over 100 songs in digital format chosen from the MP3.com song library. The LindowsOS Microtel PCs sold at Walmart.com range in price from about US$200 to US$500 and use chips from Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Via Technologies.

Walmart.com sells a variety of stand-alone versions of Windows desktop operating systems, including Windows 2000 Professional for US$299.96, Windows XP Professional Edition OEM Version for US$198.98 and Windows XP Home Edition OEM Version for US$119.98. Upgrades are also available.