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?

[joebuck]

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

I believe this is referring to PC versions of popular video games such as Madden Football, Halflife, Halo etc. These games need a lot of computer horsepower and 3-D video cards to run. The same with architechural programs (CAD programs) and sophisticated 3-D graphics modeling programs. Like with the games, it takes processor power in both the machine and video card along with plenty of RAM to render the 3-D objects in these programs with the speed necessary to make them usable.

[Red Badger]

I used to use Norton Utilities on it like once a week and kept it de-fragged and compacted and everything I could use, Zipped, LHArc’ed and anything else that came along. Now, I’ve got 80 Gigs and don’t really even think about it at all............

[posterchild]

My summer job in 1988 in digital imaging had the old DEC platters the size of a chair. About the time I showed up they started failing frequently and leery eyes started looking at me. Turned out that the air conditioner was not being kept on during the weekends per mgmt and the heads would crash in the hotter/thinner air. They ended up paying $5K each for a ‘modern style’ hard drive (about 65MB IIRC).

[posterchild]

And also amazing that solid state thumb drives now are 1GB and more.

[tobyhill]

As a bonus they add 24/7 Customer Service from North Korea. 24 hours on hold, 7 days a week.

[Old Professer]

“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.”

Don’t you just love it when they talk computer?

[posterchild]

I miss defragging - it was fun to watch:)

[posterchild]

24 hours on hold, 7 days a week.

Yeah, but is it helpful?

[VRWCTexan]

Everex = 1983?

I got my first Trash-80 in 1979 ....

[Red Badger]

It’s still part of your system, inside System Tools..........

[posterchild]

I got my first Trash-80 in 1979 ....

Now I have nostalgia for peek and poke.

[Red Badger]

I had a Timex-Sinclair with 16K Memory Expansion Module!........

[gunservative]

I have a PC running Ubuntu with nearly the same machine specs. Paid $50 for the used computer and wiped the drive. Ubuntu came in the mail for free. It was an easy install and works great. I added Wine so I could some Windows apps and Flash things on the web.

[posterchild]

It’s still part of your system, inside System Tools

When I click on that little bitten apple thingy in the upper left corner of my screen I can't seem to find a 'System Tools.'

[Red Badger]

Oh, okay.............

[aroundabout]

I wonder just whose research it was that indicated Walmart shoppers were unsophisticated and equated size with capabilty.

Are we talking about a computer or a di*k here. (I know, I know, it ain’t the size it’s the motion)

[BurbankKarl]

what the hell is an everex?

I was in the SuperWalmart on Saturday...packed to the gills....

[DJ Frisat]

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

I paid $700 for a 20MB drive for my Apple II+.

And I saw a Computer Shopper on the rack at a grocery store the other day. It's a VERY SLIM magazine these days - a mere shadow of its former girth!

[aroundabout]

My first was in 1992. It had 4 megs of ram, 104 meg hard drive a 13 in monitor and a 2 ppm black only printer.

It was on sale and cost almost $1700.00

Inflation, what inflation?

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

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.

_________________________________________________________

Hmmmm.....I don’t even know what to say.