Everybody who is somebody in the electronics industry is in Vegas for CES. That must of course mean that there are 120,000 somebodies in this sector, but it also gives you a shot a meeting some interesting people.

I just ran into Michael Roberston on the show floor. Robertson is the CEO of Linspire, formerly know as Lindows. They sell Linux for the desktop, and recently signed a major deal with Walmart. The world's largest retailer has started selling a Linspire equipped laptop on its website for $499.

The web only deal can lead to more, Robertson told me. "If it goes well, they'll start  selling it in their stores as well." And so far he is very happy with how sales are going.

Some observers have complained that the hardware for the laptop is slow and lacking. Besides, consumers in the US and Europe are so used to running Windows that they don't want to switch to Linux. "You shouldn't look at it that way. People who buy it get a machine to do email or word processing. When I ran mp3.com, all I had was a laptop."

vnunet.com did an interview with Robertson last September. Click here to read it, and find out what Linspire has to do with mp3.com

This photo is NOT taken at CES - it's a stock photo provided by Linspire. Robertson had to run off to a meeting before I had a chance to take out my camera.