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?

[billakay]

Yes, it’s just a LOT thinner than you remember it.

[Red Badger]

Yes, it’s just a LOT thinner than you remember it.

Too bad I'm not!.........

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

lol.....good one.

[isaiah55version11_0]

bttt

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Wow! A terabyte for 300 bucks!

I started in 1980 on a Timex-Sinclair with a (wince) tape-drive. No disk storage at all. Then graduated "up" to a commodore vic 20 with a (wince) tape drive. Then graduated up to a c64 which DID in fact have a disk drive (rattled a LOT though).

Finally, I hit the big leagues and got an 8086 pc with 640 memory, 20 meg drive and 4 color cga as a christmas bonus from work.

Sigh.

LOL. Looking at my next one even as we speak. Q6600 Intel quad-core with 4 gig of memory and a 1 terabyte drive.

My how times change over a short 27 years.

Well, I'm off to take my anti-alzheimers meds now.

8^)

[Blue Highway]

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

Me too, only I still have a closet with a few of them. I finally threw some of them out a year or so ago from the early - mid 90's.

[reagan_fanatic]

In fact, Wal-Mart do sell a similar system with Home Basic pre-installed...

This be good English.

[wildbill]

Whether you need all the latest technology depends on your use and your fancy. I bought a low-end Emachine 1600 with 40 Gig HD years ago. I’ve upgraded the RAM to 512.

I stay on the web over 40 hours per week, trading currencies. Apart from email and net stuff, I write fiction and have have three novels, assorted short stories and the student papers from three MA’s on my HD>

I’ve downloaded a potful of programs and video movies (don’t ask, don’t tell) and still have about 13 gigs of space.

I have a bunch of bloated Windows stuff like Office and Publisher, but recently got rid of Adobe Reader (23MB)for the free Fixit Reader (2.3MB)

By the way, since I upgraded from Win98 to XP Pro, I’ve had almost flawless operations for my purposes on this low end machine.

[RobRoy]

No games support used to be the problem with Apple machines back in the day.

If enough people use your operating system, software to run on that system will come. And if it is open source... WOO HOO!

This could be very interesting.

[PAR35]

About the only thing that your average home user won’t be able to do with this PC is play games on it.

My old DOS based games won't run on it, but there are lot of games out there that will run on Linux.

As far as sophistication, shutting off Vista isn't going to be intuitive even to an XP user, so the migration from 98 or XP to Linux isn't going to be that much harder than the migration from 98 or XP to Vista.

[bajabaja]

bttt and flr, thanks Ernest.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

what the hell is an everex?

About Everex...since 1983

I need to get cleaned up and check out Walmart....

[ShadowAce]

[Blue Highway]

Any links for that fixit reader? I found a few references to fox-it reader, not sure if thats the same thing.

[Nephi]

I agree. I tried dual boot with Ubuntu 7.10 and it is definitely not plug n play.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I gave up on dual boot long ago...just get a decent KVM switch and a cheap case....

[isthisnickcool]

I don't like Ubuntu but the Compiz interface is just so cool! I've been using it for some time. It's especially neat with several monitors. Here is one of many videos on youtube showing what it looks like. MS and Apple should be ripping off Compiz as soon as they can. Since Apple is basically a BSD unix system they should be able to port "the cube" to their OS quickly if they have not already.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this:

FixIt Reader - Possibly the Adobe Acrobat killer we've been waiting for

[Petronski]

I’ve been using Fixit rather than Adobe for probably six months, in a business setting.

Faster, smoother, better in every way. Jettison the resource hog known as Adobe Reader and GET THIS instead.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That is an excellent Youtube demo.....I am running Beryl on Sabayon 3.3...and had it running with PC-BSD 1.4 beta...