Does Everex benefit open source market?

While the company's press release emphasizes energy efficiency and productivity, the big news here is it's being sold at Wal-Mart.

The marketing screams open source, but the PC itself runs Windows Vista, replacing only Microsoft Office. This means all those education packages parents think are essential will run on it, as will those games the kids think are more essential.

One can argue that the Everex machine is a stunt. Since we're talking about replacement machines, anyone with an existing Office license will find the claimed price break disappears. If you're running Linux, you can get more hardware for less. Notice the lack of a monitor in the picture.

You're also looking at a non-standard chip, the VIA CD-7. VIA, a "fabless fab" company, is best known for logic chips in embedded markets, and claims this new offering represents carbon free computing.

So, will the Everex box be a hit or a miss? And if it is a hit, is that a big win for open source, or for Microsoft?