Linspire, Inc. announces that Sears is selling a $199 Linux PC, after $100 mail-in rebate in their online store. The PC runs Linspire's Freespire 2.0 Ubuntu Linux based OS.

The hardware is put together by Mirus Innovations a North America PC manufacturer.

It appears Sears is going directly against Wal-mart's Everex $199 PC.

Looking at the hardware specifications of the Everex PC and the Linspire Mirus PC, two main differences jump out. The $199 Linux PC sold via Sears has a Intel Celeron 1.6Ghz CPU and 1GB RAM and the Everex PC runs on VIA C7-D 1.5 GHz CPU with only 512MB of RAM.

I assume Everex will soon step up their RAM to match the Sears Linux PC offer.

The Linux PC page on the Sears site does not yet mention the $100 mail-in rebate that is touted in this Linspire press-release. I suggest you wait until the information is published on how to get the $100 mail-in rebate before buying.

I wonder how long it will take until Dell is going to offer a $199 Linux PC. Their current Ubuntu running Destop starts at $499, but of course has way better specifications.