[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"My contention is that they couldn’t do it profittably."

It all depends on how this Wal-Mart experiment works out regarding customers' support expectations. You hit the nail on the head regarding support costs.

Apple will be watching. Their Chinese manufacturing pipeline is as low-cost as anyone's. I can't imagine the technical support customers will get Wal-Mart could be much worse than I've gotten from Dell, but it still costs money. As a geek, I don't mind Googling and prowling forums for support, so Linux works for me. But will Aunt Min dig it as she tries out this whole newfangled computer thing?

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

-—————I can’t imagine the technical support customers will get Wal-Mart could be much worse than I’ve gotten from Dell, but it still costs money.-—————

I’d imagine that in a lot of cases, support would be lower.

You don’t have many viruses, so naturally no antivirus to deal with.

No spyware.

And no software to install/uninstall. The computer already comes with most things you’ll need. a FOSS box is gonna have open office, while granted isn’t as good as MS office it’s a fantastic product. It’s gonna come with GIMP, which is also a fantastic product.

And linux is less crash prone than windows is. Tech support calls would be mainly due to hardware concerns; someone bought an external hard drive or something. Maybe an occassional printer error.

They don’t have cost on the OS itself unlike MS or Apple would have. All of this is why it’s more profitable for an FOSS box in such a low dollar amount. $200, maybe even $150 or lower.

———But will Aunt Min dig it as she tries out this whole newfangled computer thing?—————

I doubt Aunt Min will do anything different than my grandma does on her linux box. Hit the power and what’s there is there.