The Everex gPC2 and Cloudbook will only be avaiable online, due to lackluster brick-and-mortar sales

While consumer-oriented Linux has been on a rise of late due to healthy sales of the ASUS Eee PC, and Dell which offers a range of notebooks and desktops preloaded with Ubuntu on their website, the store shelves don’t quite seem ready for the March of the Penguins to reach their desktops.

Wal-Mart, the sole brick-and-mortar retailer of Everex’s $199 gPC, has effectively pulled the Linux-based machine off its store shelves, citing a lack of demand. Oddly enough, the in-store supplies of the gPC were sold out across the approximately 600 stores that received shipments — but Wal-Mart spokesperson Melissa O’Brien stated that “This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for.”

Online buyers didn’t appear to share these feelings, and the Wal-Mart.com site is now offering the second-generation gPC2 for sale, in addition to Everex’s CloudBook, an ultraportable Linux laptop aiming to cut into the Eee PC’s market.

With competition in the low-budget PC market heating up in 2008, the lack of licensing fees could mean that Linux will be found on many more desktops and laptops — but if the sales of the gPC are any indication, it may still be some time before it gains a serious foothold in the mainstream retail market.

According to Net Applications, Linux held on to only 0.67% market share in January 2008. This figure pales in comparison to OS X which commanded 7.57% of the market and Windows which continues to outshine all with 91.46% of the OS market.