in brief Aussie open source and web development consultancy Babel Com has acquired pioneering local Linux retailer, Everything Linux, following the untimely death of its founder Anthony Rumble in May.
"Babel had been in negotiations to purchase Everything Linux for some time, prior to Anthony's untimely passing," said Babel managing director David Elson. One of Rumble's friends and shareholder of the retailer, Grant Parnell, has been assisting with the sale.
Babel will re-establish a retail presence for Everything Linux on Sydney's north shore, and will enlarge its mail order business, which focuses entirely on Linux products. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.
Everything Linux was one of the first local retailers to bring Linux lovers' merchandise, including software but also T-shirts and badges, for example, to the Australian community after the free operating system took off in the early 1990s.
Anthony Rumble was a great guy and responsive to his customers, but he never did seem to have the financial resources to promote and grow Everything Linux to its capacity.
I wish the new owners every success. Hopefully they bring back the provision of FULL SETS of various Linux distributions.
With some distributions filling on the order of ten (or so) DVD's, those of us without very fast links can not feasibly download them. Also many users would like a printed copy for archival purposes.
High-end Linux graphics cards is another product I would like to see at a retail/VAR level rather than ordering from overseas and struggling with the install.