Word is that Wal-Mart (WMT) will offer a sub-$300 back-to-school PC. Early versions may have Microsoft (MSFT) Windows but DeskTopLinux says that it will ship with Ubuntu Linux soon.

Having a such an inexpensive PC could help Wal-Mart take more business from retailers like Best Buy (BBY) and Circuit City (CC), but it is probably a bigger win for the open source Linux community. While getting Linux into enterprise servers has not been a big deal, getting onto the PC desk-top has been nearly impossible.

Wal-Mart could help change that. The barrier will be how easy the desktop version of Linux is to use. If its requires relearning how to navigate around the computer, it may be DOA.

Douglas A. McIntyre