CNET reports that Sam's joins $300 Linux PC club with RedHat 8.0.

While many might see this as just another instance of Linux trying to fill a low-end desktop market, RedHat PC's offer a major difference over the Lindows flavors offered at Walmart: RedHat is the industry leader in Linux software used on servers.

So it seems we might be overlooking something in our haste to examine the Linux desktop for the average user. While these RedHat PC's may not offer the flashy apps of even a $600 Windows XP machine, what they do offer is a full Linux development platform. Could these PC's offer disadvantaged teens access to an environment for learning programming and operating system design which can't be equalled by a Windows machine which costs 4 or 5 times as much?

After all, which would a hacker choose to use as his personal machine?