Wal-Mart’s $200 PC - sold out ( 10,000 sold...running Linux Ubuntu )

ZDNET ^ | November 13th, 2007 | Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

About two weeks ago, Wal-Mart began selling $200 Linux-based PC.  The initial run was around 10,000 units.  Now Wal-Mart is sold out.  Has Linux now found a niche?

The system sold by Wal-Mart was an Everex’s TC2502 gPC and is the first mass-market $200 desktop PC.  The spec of the system is very low - 1.5 GHz VIA C7 CPU embedded onto a Mini-ITX motherboard, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB Maybe a more relevant question is not whether Linux has found a niche, but whether Windows has outgrown the average user?hard drive - but this doesn’t matter because the system does pretty much everything that your average PC users wants.  With the gPC you can surf the web, send and receive email, work with word processor and spreadsheet documents, chat with friends, keep a blog updated, edit photos and pictures, even burn DVDs thanks to the built-in DVD burner.  About the only thing that your average home user won’t be able to do with this PC is play games on it.

One thing that interested me about this PC is that it is shipped in a tower case when the components would fit into a much smaller case.  I wondered why this was the case until I came across a write-up on Wired:

Even at the low end, however, image is everything. The gPC is built using tiny components, but put inside a full-size case because research indicates that Wal-Mart shoppers are so unsophisticated they equate physical size with capability.

That “Wal-Mart shoppers are so unsophisticated” bit is a tad worrying because I do wonder whether someone who equates case size with capability should be put in charge of a Linux system.  The reviews seem pretty positive though.  Maybe Wired have underestimate the kind of person who shops at Wal-Mart.  Positive reviews far outweigh negative ones.  However, the comment that stood out was this:

when you want to jazz it up, just spend 10 bucks for a new linux distro

Interesting comment, eh?

Now here’s what’s interesting about this PC.  It doesn’t have what it takes to run Windows Vista, but it has more than enough power to do pretty much everything that users want from a PC.  As hardware costs have plummeted, and the power that can be squeezed from components increased, the cost of having Windows installed on such a PC becomes too high a proportion of the cost of components.  For example, if you wanted to load Windows Vista Home Basic onto this system (not that I’d suggest that you tried - the PC just couldn’t cope with Vista), you’re adding between $60 and $90 to the cost of the PC (depending on what the vendor pays for an OEM license, if you do it yourself, expect to pay the higher price in this spectrum).  In fact, Wal-Mart do sell a similar system with Home Basic pre-installed (this system has an extra 512MB of RAM, a SATA 150 drive instead of an ATA 150 hard drive, and comes with a keyboard and mouse) for $298.  Add Microsoft Office to that cost and the price of software doubles the price of the hardware.  By installing Linux and OpenOffice, the total cost of the PC is kept as low as possible.  While the price of hardware has fallen dramatically, the price of Windows hasn’t.  This could be Microsoft’s Achilles’ Heel.  This low price point will appeal to many.

Has Linux finally found a niche in which it can compete against Windows or will the interest in these kinds of systems be limited?  I think that Linux might well have found a good niche.  Sure, these low-end systems will never appeal to those who want power at any cost (and who don’t mind if their systems belch black smoke to achieve that power) but for people looking for a very cheap PC at a rock bottom price (this system is so cheap that I doubt you could build one for as good a price if you added shipping charges for the components into the deal), this must be a pretty irresistible deal.

Maybe a more relevant question is not whether Linux has found a niche, but whether Windows has outgrown the average user?

Thoughts?

[MarkL]

And also amazing that solid state thumb drives now are 1GB and more.

Microcenter sells 4GB USB flash drives for $30.

Mark

[Aquinasfan]

Even at the low end, however, image is everything. The gPC is built using tiny components, but put inside a full-size case because research indicates that Wal-Mart shoppers are so unsophisticated they equate physical size with capability.

Funny, but hey, give the people what they want.

This would make a great second-computer for us. I can have the laptop and the kids can use this one to play on the Webkinz site.

[MarkL]

Not allot of great games for Linux

If you've got "Bubble Breaker" (known as "Same Gnome" on Ubuntu) and "Tux Racer," what more could you ever want?

Mark

[Nephi]

You’re a stinker.

[Nephi]

That was one of the things I didn’t like about Gutsy...it kept asking me for my password every time I wanted to do something.

[ShadowAce]

I like “Fish Fillets”

[MarkL]

I really like Fedora. Of course, I've been running Red hat and Fedora since Red Hat 0.9 (I think--1994, anyway). Fedora 8 is probably the first Fedora distro I've had that works completely "out of the box". Sound, wireless, video, everything. I'm currently running it on a Dell Latitude D830 at 1920x1200.

Am I dating myself? My first experience was with Yggdrasil Linux... Somewhere at home I've still got my copy of "Linux Bible, The GNU Testament" too...

Mark

[ShadowAce]

Yeah. I remember Yggdrasil. I had forgotten about that. Try out Fish Fillets—it’s pretty addictive.

[longtermmemmory]

or you just wipe the drive and install a copy of windows from some other computer.

[TalBlack]

Do you know anything about Ubuntu Studio? Does the install wipe windows as the OS or does it partition somehow? Will my currently functioning sound card work? Is there someplace I can go that answers these questions? I’d love to try getting away from the resource sucking of Windows.

[Proud_texan]

"I’m surprised that it doesn’t have a 56k modem"

It does, integrated fax/modem per the specs on the Wal-Mart site linked in the article.

However in this October 31 article it claims that the OS doesn't support the modem hardware.

I have no idea if that's true or not.

[ShadowAce]

I honestly don't know anything about Ubuntu Studio, but here is the home page for the project.

I use Fedora 8. Right out of the box, so to speak, it supported sound, video, and wireless with no issues. However, with most free-only distros, you may run into some post-install issues. For instance, on my Fedora 8, I have to also install mp3 capability, and Flash capability. Each one was a single command, though, so it's not difficult at all.

[Big Giant Head]

Sorry it took me a while to answer. I bought this machine off Ebay with XP pro on it. I don’t want to mess it up, but I do want to experiment with Ubuntu.

I did already set it to boot first from disk, but instead of giving me the usual “push any key to boot from CD...” option, it just skips it and goes ahead and loads windows. I think the disk didn’t work.

[snowsislander]

It appears that Newegg currently has these in stock for the same price of $199:

EVEREX gPC TC2502 VIA C7-D 1.5GHz 512MB DDR2 80GB VIA UniChrome Pro Linux gOS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That’s is a very good looking system...with a modem too...

[bigdcaldavis]

Games? Bah. That’s what a Playstation or a Wii is for. :-p

[bigdcaldavis]

This is obviously a ploy by Microsoft to get everybody turned off of Linux when all these machines crap out at once!.........

Allow me to quote "Troy from West Virginia" who calls in to the Alex Jones radio show:

"Coo coo. Coo coo. Fruit loop. Coo Coo."

:-D

[bigdcaldavis]

Wish I still had my old C64 and 1541 floppy drive and a buttload of Compute’s Gazette magazines. :-D

[bigdcaldavis]

I bought my first Mac about 4 years ago for a mere $10. :-p

It’s a Macintosh SE with 4 MB RAM, a 100 MB hard drive and Mac OS 7.

[bigdcaldavis]

Dang. My first computer was a cheap Atari 600XL that I for Christmas in 1984. (Cheap because the Tramiels took over the company and cut the prices so they could get rid of old stock.)