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?

[bigdcaldavis]

You forgot the part where the customer says “Linux is by them A-rabs” and “Linux is al-Qaeda”. :-p

[bigdcaldavis]

Frozen Bubble is the best. Plus, there are some very good first-person tournament-style shooters like OpenArena. And the upcoming version of Unreal Tournament is supposed to have a Linux “retail box” version.

[Red Badger]

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

"/S".................

[DaGman]

"I personally believe the majority of the people who buy them are going to pump them full of warez and put them in the family room for the kids."

You don't need warez or even need to buy any new software. All the software in the the Ubuntu software repository is free. In fact, it's advised that you not install software from anywhere else but the Ubuntu repository for compatibility reasons and to be sure it's installed correctly.

Using my IBM laptop here running Ubuntu, and using a great free CAD program called Qcad, I designed the deck around my pool and the sprinkler system for my backyard. Just simple stuff, I know, but I've never used a CAD program before and I made it pretty intricate. I understand that Qcad will do anything the high end Windows based programs will do.

[DaGman]

Check out Audacity. It's everything you need in sound editing software. I love it.

[bigdcaldavis]

I’m sure solitaire runs fine!

Solitaire sure does. gOS has the same "Aisleriot Solitaire" and all the other games that's found on Ubuntu (vanilla Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu).

[Lx]

Ah, the days when IDE came out and you had to physically remove and replace the Bios chips to support IDE.
It sure was nice to have a ROM burner heh heh.

[bigdcaldavis]

I loooove Audacity. I have a few music videos on one of my YouTube channels. I used Audacity to do the remixing of the songs (they're more like "glorified copy-and-paste" efforts, lol) and then I used Avidemux to make the videos. All done on Ubuntu. Here they are:

"The Price Is Right" Music Cue - Cue 86 (2007 Remix)"

"The Price Is Right" Music Cue - The Big Banana (2007 Remix)

Queen - Another One Bites The Dust (2007 Remix)

[tutstar]

gnip...

[tutstar]

gnip...

[steve86]

My old group’s first hard drive was a 10 mB Winchester for a DEC system

If I'm thinking of the same drive it took a healthy man to carry one of those up three flights of stairs (and most women wouldn't consider it, except for one female DEC Tech who was in better shape than most of the men).

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

So it’s 25,000 more memory for less than money. Crazy.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

Must mean the High end games...I’m sure solitaire runs fine!

Exactly. There are plenty of fine games out there that don't need a $1000 + computer to run it. It's just in the past 3 or 4 years that the games have become memory and graphics card hogs.

Just my opinion of course.