$298 Wal-Mart PC features OpenOffice.org, no crapware

arsTechnia ^ | Published: July 18, 2007 - 05:00PM CT | By Eric Bangeman

[N3WBI3]

Looking to get a jump on the lucrative back-to-school shopping season, Wal-Mart has begun selling a sub-$300 PC. The Everex IMPACT GC3502 comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and OpenOffice.org 2.2 installed on a system that includes a 1.5GHz VIA C7 CPU, 1GB of DDR-2 SDRAM, an 80GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and integrated graphics, as well as a keyboard, mouse, and speakers.

The Everex machine will be competing for Wal-Mart shelf space with the low-cost Dells recently introduced to the world of brick-and-mortar sales. The retail giant currently sells the Dell Dimension E521 for $498 alone or bundled with a 19" LCD monitor and slightly faster Athlon 64 X2 CPU for $200 more.

Cost aside, the two centerpieces of the Everex offering are the inclusion of OpenOffice.org 2.2 and the absence of crapware typically bundled with low-cost PCs. Including OO.org instead of Microsoft Office or even Microsoft Works allowed the PC manufacturer to shave a few additional dollars off of the PC's price, and according to OO.org marketing project lead John McCreesh, the open-source office suite passed all of Everex's tests "with flying colors."

Users accustomed to being bombarded with trialware offers and seeing their would-be pristine Windows desktops littered with shortcuts to AOL and other applications will likely be pleased at their absence from the GC3502. "In creating the eco-friendly GC3602, our main focus was to build a no-compromise, back-to-school PC with all the software applications a typical student would require, without resorting to bundling frivolous trial versions or increasing prices 30 percent," said Everex product manager Eugene Chang.

While the price may be right for budget-conscious shoppers, the replacement of familiar brands like Intel, AMD, and Microsoft with VIA and OpenOffice.org may give some would-be buyers pause. And as the price and specs indicate, the machine is going to find itself on the very low end of the performance spectrum. That said, for basic word processing, e-mailing, listening to music, watching video, and web surfing, the machine should be adequate, and Windows Vista Home Basic doesn't have the graphical overhead of the other versions.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is a more complete and much faster system:

FS-320 3.2 GHz Freespire PC [i686] $289.00

Has an 80 Gig hard drive

[Red_Devil 232]

The ones I have seen are running Vista. Were the ones you worked on purchased at Wal-Mart?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Has 512 Meg memory also...should be much faster than the Walmart machine, ...has an Intel 3 GHz processor......since it is Linux much less trouble with Malware off the internet....does not appear to have a dialup modem ,...has an ethernet connection if you have a cable modem connection to the internet/....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Post #23 was meant for you.

[KoRn]

"Were the ones you worked on purchased at Wal-Mart?"

I'm not sure where they were purchased. I believe one of them came from a local computer shop.

[DesScorp]

Putting OO on it is a great idea. Putting Vista on it...not so much.

[ovrtaxt]

Cool. I love open source!

[texas booster]

I have started buying the cheapest Presario at the store that I can find. If you check here:

http://www.compusabusiness.com/products/products.asp?N=200005&Ns=display%5Fprice%7C0#sort1

You will see some fast systems with current equipment for under $300. Fry’s is also good, but I do not buy their GQ systems. Way too many failures.

I spend about 30 minutes deleting junk, then the system is ready to update and install OO.

[KoRn]

That’s great! Too bad for the 90% of the other users who don’t know to do such things.

I still can’t get over the fact that they use the FAT32 file system for XP. ROFL!! WTF are they thinking, or are they even thinking?