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?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[Tirian]

My old group’s first hard drive was a 10 mB Winchester for a DEC system - total cost for drive and controller came out to $100 per mB. A 750 gB drive I bought last week for a desktop system came to $0.00027 per mB.

[kevkrom]

Soon 9000 knuckle dragging mouth breathing slugs will return their PC’s to Walmart because they “don’t get that linus thang”

Installation has always been the hardest part of Linux. But if the system is pre-installed and has the right drivers for the hardware already built in, how hard is it to run a web browser? Or a word processor?

The biggest issue would be to have an update tool that works as invisibly as Windows Update, i.e., not necessarily invisible, but mostly automated.

[twntaipan]

I think the article misses one point. Only a company the size of a Walmart could withstand Microsoft’s pressure. It will be telling if Walmart signs an agreement with gOS to be there sole distributer of the gPC.

[untrained skeptic]

This has to be temporary. Can run a Word Processr, but not a game?

You can play web based games, but it doesn't have the horsepower to play graphically intense games.

You can do quite a bit with a VIA C7 at 1.5 GHz if you customize software for it but I doubt that this will get to be a large enough installed user base to justify customizing game software to it when they can develop for game consoles instead.

[Red Badger]

I remember saying, “Man, I’ll NEVER fill this baby up!”.................

[fella]

Skip all the compuresse please and just tell us "What do it do".

I may use a computer but I know little about their hardware and even less about their software. I just want to FReep with them. (Hmmmmmm .... that sounds almost lewd.)

[untrained skeptic]

These folks are nuts,,,The more air circulating the cooler the machine runs..

Even this version of the VIA C7 processor doesn't use a lot of power, the low power version uses even less but only goes up to 1.2 GHz currently. The low power version doesn't even need a fan on the heatsink or in the case at all as long as it has some ventilation or uses the case itself as a heatsink.

[AFreeBird]

My first computer was an Everex. I paid more than this system costs to upgrade the HDD from 20 to 30 MB.

You should have seen what I paid for an add on external 10MB HDD for my IBM PC. Didn't cost quite as much as the PC, which would buy you a top of the line, all the bells and whistles, laptop (and then some) these days, but it was expensive.

[Blue Highway]

I paid $400 for a 40MB HDD once, by mail order!.............& I thought I was getting a great deal!..............Is Computer Shopper still around?............

Yep Computer Shopper is still around but it went from that mammoth 300+ page monthly computer bible, to a thinner than PC Magazine pamphlet like magazine now. I used to subscribe to it in the mid 90's prior to me getting my feet wet with PC's. Took me a year to decide what I wanted. At the time Pentium I's rated at 90mhz were the top dog, and I waited it out until the 233's came around and of course I went agauinst the grain with AMD, as I didn't want to support the 800 pound gorilla (Intel)

[kevkrom]

"What do it do".

It will run web browsers, mail programs, productivity apps like word processing and spreadsheets, mostly over web-based applications provided by Google.

What it won't do is run most software written for the Microsoft Windows platform. If you just surf the web, send email, and do up a few documents, this will probably work fine for you.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You can do Freerepublic posting and browsing very well...not sure how well YouTubes will run....but Linux Mint (build on Ubuntu runs the videos OK)

[KarlInOhio]

Is Computer Shopper still around?............

I just saw one on the magazine rack a few days ago. It looks like a regular magazine rather than the huge catalog of ads with three articles so the post office counted it as a mag for postage of the old days.

$200? I could buy 10 of them (almost 20 if you count inflation) for the price I bought my 7 MHz Leading Edge PC in 1985. And toss in another 3 (5 with inflation) for the price I bought my hard disk to add later on.

Excuse me while I shake my cane at some young whippersnappers.

[twntaipan]

From what you write I’d have to say you haven’t used a recent version of Ubuntu. First, you boot a livecd...and get to play with Ubuntu before deciding to install. To install, click the icon on the desktop.

Installation is a snap...all done graphically, repartitions and preserves the Windows partition, migrates your Windows data.

Reboot and you are up and running. Gutsy Gibbon (latest release of Ubuntu) had my wifi up and running effortlessly, configured my networked printer, saw Samba shares, all with no input.

And Ubuntu’s Update Manager updates the system too.

(Sorry if you were aware of all that).

[padre35]

I’m surprised that it doesn’t have a 56k modem as well as the ethernet port.

[AFreeBird]

The biggest issue would be to have an update tool that works as invisibly as Windows Update, i.e., not necessarily invisible, but mostly automated.

While I can't speak for Ubuntu; I run SuSE and it has auto-update capabilities if you care to use them. Unlike winders though, it is not required, and it does not phone home and delete stuff w/out your knowledge.

I suspect, given their target market and Wallyworld demographics, that feature is probably turned on.

[Red Badger]

I used to read EVERY page and EVERY ad on those old huge Computer Shoppers!....Wouldn’t throw one away for years..........

[enraged]

A new Everex 486 w/ 40meg hard drive!

“Wow, we will never fill that hard drive up!”
Yes, ashamedly these were my own words, in 1989.
I think it cost more than my car at that time, the 8 pen color plotter was twice what my car cost.

Our current ACAD program alone would not even fit on a 40meg hard drive.

[posterchild]

I remember saying, “Man, I’ll NEVER fill this baby up!”

Actually it probably took a while before I ever did fill it. Freeware 'vi', C++ compilers, and DR-DOS don't take up the room like digital images, mp3s, bloatware, etc do.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just came acoss this from HardOCP...:

Intel to launch Shelton'08 low-cost desktop platform next year

********************EXCERPT*************************

Intel is expected to launch its Shelton'08 low-cost desktop platform for systems priced as low as US$100 next year and targeting emerging markets, according to industry sources. Even though it is a desktop platform, its improved heat dissipation and power consumption will have Shelton'08 first being adopted for sub-US$300 notebooks in the third quarter of 2008, and shortly afterward for US$100 desktop systems, the sources said.

According to the sources, the platform will use 45nm Diamondville processors, with either Intel's 945GC or SiS 671 chipsets. It supports Microsoft Vista Basic.