Toys R US in the UK can't keep the eee in stock

[greggh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/ap ... feed=media

For some months, strange goings-on have been reported in branches of Toys 'R' Us. Shifty-looking middle-aged men and younger males wearing ponytails and Grateful Dead T-shirts have been observed leaving the premises with small cardboard boxes which they then gleefully tear open upon reaching the safety of their cars. Exclamations of 'Yes! And 'Yeehaw!!!' have been heard by security guards, who are as puzzled by all this as their checkout colleagues.

'I can't figure it out,' said one store manager, when quizzed by this columnist a few months ago. 'The things are just walking out of the store. They sell out the minute we get a delivery.'

'They' refers not to a cuddly toy, but to the ASUS EeePC, a small sub-notebook computer made in Taiwan...

Apparently Toys R Us is the cheapest way to get the eee in the UK.

[Patrick]

I remember buying my Vic-20 and Commodore64 at Toys-R-Us back in the day. For a low cost device it definitely makes sense selling it in big box stores (especially around Christmas). Now only if they can come up with some kind of marketing campaign.

[greggh]

By Christmas time there should be Atom versions of the 9" eee, a VIA Isaiah (drop-in replacement for the current C7-M with 2x the performance but same power draw) versions of the HP Mini-Note, a Dell competitor, and an Acer competitor. Unfortunately, by Christmas every one of these in the retail stores will come with Windows.

[dann]

Are the ones flying out of Toys R Us running Xandros?

It's a shame that they are going to start selling these things with Windows on them when. Greggh, are you sure they will only be selling the Windows version in stores?

Let's face it, I suspect these devices would be a run-away success with Linux running on them. It's a shame they are going to put a crippled, bug ridden, way out-dated OS on there.

[greggh]

Are the ones flying out of Toys R Us running Xandros?

Yup

It's a shame that they are going to start selling these things with Windows on them when. Greggh, are you sure they will only be selling the Windows version in stores?

Nope. Just my guess.

Let's face it, I suspect these devices would be a run-away success with Linux running on them. It's a shame they are going to put a crippled, bug ridden, way out-dated OS on there.

Agreed.