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-—————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.

"They don’t have cost on the OS itself unlike MS or Apple would have.

Hm, interesting thought. There's still the need to understand, document and (at least occasionally) support the product being sold. Starting from scratch in that regard with Linux (or even BSD, the scaffolding behind MacOS) would not come free. GIMP and Open Office could be put on a MacOS-based cheapie computer too, so the "free software" aspect is comparatively immaterial.

Rather than my iPod analogy, maybe a better one might be the AppleTV box, which is pretty much a Mac Mini with video stuff that could be stripped out, and a semi-specialized version of MacOS. It sells in the price range we're talking about. Pull out the video stuff, put in some of the free software you mentioned, add a mouse, and you have a very nice "cheap Mac" alternative to the Wal-Mart Linux boxes.

My point: they could do it if they wanted to. But many prestigious brands are loath to dilute their image with bargain offerings even it it could be profitable. Apple has many opportunities it could pursue and many hidebound industries they could revolutionize, and they're smart enough not to pursue all of them. Bottom line, I doubt they'd do this, except maybe as a feel-good contribution to the One Laptop Per Child thing... I like Apple and its products, but its people are a bunch of libs, remember!