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We need a law that prevents any operating system from coming preinstalled on a new computer. Then Joe Sixpack will be forced to stand in Walmart and pick out a new OS for his $300 emachines computer that he bought solely for the purpose of obtaining free porn and visiting the WWE website.

This will force him to choose an operating system based on price and features instead of getting whatever OS forced its way down the throat of the OEM. He'll pick up the box, look at the pictures, look at the price. When you know nothing about computers and are trying to be as cheap as possible, a bargain $8.95 KDE desktop looks pretty slick compared to XP w/SP2 for $198.00. (holy fuck I didn't know walmart was so expensive!)

You can't argue at all, let alone all day.

"There is a difference here in what I want and what you think I want." OK, tell me what you want, what you really, really want.

"Most people assume that companies abuse employees intentionally. I disagree." Of COURSE you should disagree, and rightly so. Did you clicky the linky to the Stanford experiment? Do you think the guards went into that experiment with the intention of degrading, depersonalising, and dehumanising the prisoners? It's called situational psychology. I don't think you got my point about the road to hell being paved with the best of intentions.

"It is fairly well supported by research that those employees who indicate a high level of job satisfaction are more likely to be productive and less likely to slack." Did you pick up this pearl of wisdom on your way to a PhD? Glad to see you're getting your money's worth....

"Sweatshops are only going to happen when employers know very little about psychology and how to best work with employees. There are plenty of those around, but they are diminishing as they have a tougher and tougher time existing without unions or finding good workers." http://www.walmart.com/ 'nuff said.

"Figuring out the difference is hard." No it's not. When the workers are getting fucked over, it's time to unionise.

pax,
fred

The stats show a slow migration from Unix to Linux. But Microsoft remains very strong in this market.

But that value will drive the home adoption as people become familiar with Linux at work.

Tell me how a locked-down corporate desktop that clones the W2K GUI exposes users to Linux in any significant way or drives them to use Linux at home.

You need think more clearly about users want and expect from a home computer, Does this Plix HD Entertainment Media Center look remotely like an office machine?

with DTV's still well over $800.00

Open your eyes, HDTV is here and it is affordable.
You are way out of date with your prices.

Just at Walmart (yes walmart!) alone there are two HDTV's with ATSC/QAM tuners for under $800:
$600 30" HDTV set
$700 32" HDTV set

Many smart shoppers will opt for an HDTV "monitor" (a HDTV set with no tuner) and just use their cable company's set-top box for a tuner like ~50+% of American households do today with their regular sets. Walmart has got another 8 HDTV monitors for under $800.

Even smarter shoppers will buy a projector, for $600-$1200, and use their cableco's set-top box for tuning. With that projector they can have screen sizes up past 8 feet wide (not diagonal, 8 feet wide like an entire wall) that will really make good use of the picture quality of HDTV (and even many DVDs).

DTV transmitters still 5X the price of the analog gear

Differences in the cost of broadcast gear has been rapidly narrowing too - see the new Harris PowerCD UHF ATSC transmitter (it even runs linux!). Sure a new transmitter costs a lot more than an already-paid for analog transmitter, but other factors like operating cost will eventually make it cheaper to upgrade than to keep running the same old gear.

with DTV's still well over $800.00

Open your eyes, HDTV is here and it is affordable.
You are way out of date with your prices.

Just at Walmart (yes walmart!) alone there are two HDTV's with ATSC/QAM tuners for under $800:
$600 30" HDTV set
$700 32" HDTV set

Many smart shoppers will opt for an HDTV "monitor" (a HDTV set with no tuner) and just use their cable company's set-top box for a tuner like ~50+% of American households do today with their regular sets. Walmart has got another 8 HDTV monitors for under $800.

Even smarter shoppers will buy a projector, for $600-$1200, and use their cableco's set-top box for tuning. With that projector they can have screen sizes up past 8 feet wide (not diagonal, 8 feet wide like an entire wall) that will really make good use of the picture quality of HDTV (and even many DVDs).

DTV transmitters still 5X the price of the analog gear

Differences in the cost of broadcast gear has been rapidly narrowing too - see the new Harris PowerCD UHF ATSC transmitter (it even runs linux!). Sure a new transmitter costs a lot more than an already-paid for analog transmitter, but other factors like operating cost will eventually make it cheaper to upgrade than to keep running the same old gear.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=2598451

Other posters make a good point - that the two brands do not have the right "fit". But more importantly, Wal-Mart already has its own music downloading site at http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/. Why would they want to partner with Apple. And more importantly why would Apple ever want to partner with a cheap-ass store like Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart stocks a single $600 Linspire laptop, online sales only: Balance 14.1" Notebook, 1.2 GHz VIA C3 Processor, w/ Linspire. There is a Xandros desktop at $600 which bundles Skype and a Codeweavers demo, Microtel Desktop, 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4, DVD-RW Drive

But I think Wal-Mart's commitment to Linux is fragile. The chain has been losing middle class buyers to more upscale retailers like Target. It says something when Wal-Mart pushes Linux to the back burner in favor of Windows MCE at $1000-#1500 and considers Linux marketable only with Windows emulation and proprietary add-ons.

Wal-Mart stocks a single $600 Linspire laptop, online sales only: Balance 14.1" Notebook, 1.2 GHz VIA C3 Processor, w/ Linspire. There is a Xandros desktop at $600 which bundles Skype and a Codeweavers demo, Microtel Desktop, 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4, DVD-RW Drive

But I think Wal-Mart's commitment to Linux is fragile. The chain has been losing middle class buyers to more upscale retailers like Target. It says something when Wal-Mart pushes Linux to the back burner in favor of Windows MCE at $1000-#1500 and considers Linux marketable only with Windows emulation and proprietary add-ons.

If the problem with optical backup is degredation due to air and light, then the solution seems easy enough. Put the discs in a vacuum sealed, acid-free plastic bag using one of these and store in the dark in a cool, dry location.

And burn a second set of DVD's for actual use, so you don't have to break the seal on the others.

Also, as history shows, storage media will continue to grow in size and decline in price. In five years, he will probably want to re-archive everything, anyway, to condense it down.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=3584924

Wal-mart solves all problems

Amazon = One click patent.

What did B&N do?

Here's a Wal*Mart link:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=392592

Microsoft probably hates Wal*Mart.

Because of the Wal*Mart Linux PC and all of the following Linux related products at Wal*Mart:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/search-ng.gsp?searc h_constraint=0&search_query=linux

including the book "The Definitive Guide to User Mode Linux" and "Hacker Linux Uncovered".

I kid you not!

I don't know about Solitaire, but Bejeweled and Texas Hold 'Em (two of my Mom's favorites...she also like Rocket Mania) are available on the GBA. If they really want to play on the big screen, hook them up with a refurbed GameCube with a GameBoy Player. Never take the GBP boot disc out, and voila, Pickup-and-play games station with no spyware!

Ahh...we must have been looking at separate links. Here is the link from one of the parent posts. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=3610576 M.

They think that something like this, costs this much.

(Yes, by posting this on /., WalMart should give me a commission.)

Other answers: Habit, fear that it's not simple, and comfort of using tape systems over the years.

is $30 considered expensive? If so, then I must be getting rich despite my low-paying nonprofit job. Apparently fastidious use of credit goes a long way.

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get a $40 dvd recorder by the middle of next year.

They've broken the $100 price point

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=3610576

In the early 80s people were paying over $500 for a VCR. In todays money that should have doubled.

DVD recorders are therfore about 10% of the price that VCRs were in say 1982.

I think you'd struggle to get a quality vcr for much less than $100 now... though i realise the dvd+r i linked to isn't exactly 'quality'

Or if you live in Canada and have an unlimited supply of ice, just buy a read-made evaporative cooler from Wal-Mart.

On second thought, why go to to wal-mart and buy a real air conditioner and put it in the window where you would otherwise be wasting water?

You can buy them on Amazon, O'Reilly (in fact, I'm on the front page right now!), WalMart, etc.

Of course, the fastest place to get them from is the Prag Prog site itself. ;)

I know I'm responding late, however:

This might be what you are looking for. Yes, they are too expensive in my opinion, but they are at least available.

I doubt they could work for converting digital cable or satellite, however, cable and satellite companies are going to have their own boxes anyway. All theese will do is allow you to grab the digital signal from your local TV stations and put them onto current TV's.

--
Read my journal.

Walmart sells machines made by Linare that don't come with MS Windows in any form.

Linspire has a list of retail partners that sell Linux PCs.

Laptops? Shit out of luck unless you want to pay a lot more.

Walmart sells a laptop with Linspire on it for $498.
Linare laptops start at $498.
Linux Certified laptops start at $999.
ASL has a sweet laptop for $1661.

Is there a 64-bit x86 laptop available now?

Yes.
Many.
at walmart even

I was going to have my dad buy an iMac in the next month to replace his Compaq laptop, but now I don't know what the heck I'll advise him to do.

How's about a Walmart Linux laptop instead?

Try 50. Expensive!

Walmart.com lists a handful of $200 cheap-ass Linux PCs.
But mostly the chain sells more capable and stylish Windows systems as household appliances, durable goods, in the $500-$1200 price range. The comfort zone for the middle-class.
I would hazard a guess that Walmart sees its future in Windows MCE not Linux. Microtel SYSWM9003 Media Center with 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4

Uh-huh
Sure. (Not technically without an OS, but a floppy in the carton with FreeDOS is about as OS-free as you can get)
Whatever you say.

Well, they have this one:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=3504708

Wal-Mart allows other people to provide services under contract rather than providing those services themselves in their own stores.

A better example would be the Walmart Photo Center which is just a rebranded site.

Maybe you haven't explored into the realm of DVD players lately, but you can find them for under $40 or even $20 after rebate. Even name brand players are available at under $40. Even a 5-disc DVD/MP3 changer can be had for under $60. I've seen simple players in stores for $30, no rebate. Or use pricewatch.com or pricegrabber.com to do even better than the simple examples I gave. And prices will only drop.

And if you've had 3 break in 3 years, yes you HAVE had bad luck. Even the cheap Taiwanese and Korean commodity crap doesn't regularly fail after that short a period. I have a few scattered around in the house with unpronouncable brand names that have served for 3 years strong.

The point is, if I can save $50-$70 on the Revolution because it doesn't play DVDs, great! Using my console as a DVD player would effectively lessen the lifetime of my console with regards to PLAYING CONSOLE GAMES. I suppose if your luck is that crappy, then YMMV. But if your luck is that crappy, I'd be weary of evening bothering with the Revolution at all. ;)

Maybe you haven't explored into the realm of DVD players lately, but you can find them for under $40 or even $20 after rebate. Even name brand players are available at under $40. Even a 5-disc DVD/MP3 changer can be had for under $60. I've seen simple players in stores for $30, no rebate. Or use pricewatch.com or pricegrabber.com to do even better than the simple examples I gave. And prices will only drop.

And if you've had 3 break in 3 years, yes you HAVE had bad luck. Even the cheap Taiwanese and Korean commodity crap doesn't regularly fail after that short a period. I have a few scattered around in the house with unpronouncable brand names that have served for 3 years strong.

The point is, if I can save $50-$70 on the Revolution because it doesn't play DVDs, great! Using my console as a DVD player would effectively lessen the lifetime of my console with regards to PLAYING CONSOLE GAMES. I suppose if your luck is that crappy, then YMMV. But if your luck is that crappy, I'd be weary of evening bothering with the Revolution at all. ;)

Maybe you haven't explored into the realm of DVD players lately, but you can find them for under $40 or even $20 after rebate. Even name brand players are available at under $40. Even a 5-disc DVD/MP3 changer can be had for under $60. I've seen simple players in stores for $30, no rebate. Or use pricewatch.com or pricegrabber.com to do even better than the simple examples I gave. And prices will only drop.

And if you've had 3 break in 3 years, yes you HAVE had bad luck. Even the cheap Taiwanese and Korean commodity crap doesn't regularly fail after that short a period. I have a few scattered around in the house with unpronouncable brand names that have served for 3 years strong.

The point is, if I can save $50-$70 on the Revolution because it doesn't play DVDs, great! Using my console as a DVD player would effectively lessen the lifetime of my console with regards to PLAYING CONSOLE GAMES. I suppose if your luck is that crappy, then YMMV. But if your luck is that crappy, I'd be weary of evening bothering with the Revolution at all. ;)

You know, Ben would find it much easier to "drop fucking dead" if you shot ben with a 12 gauge slug.
Ben's body armor, if he had any, wouldn't help Ben either.
Throw down $300 for a semi auto 12 gauge and $10 for a box of 5 3" slugs and go help Ben.
I'm guessing Ben's successor might be a little more careful and might tone it down with the lawsuits, if not, a $200 rifle can be used. Again, body armor or ballistic glass doesn't do much against that that kind of round.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product _id=3138424

Just uhh... a thought.

This is like most every other /. hardware story.

"Ooooh, look! Ultra cheap computer!" It's only missing X, Y, and Z. And once you buy what you need to make it useful for yourself, you'd have been better off just buying what you needed in the first place.

As much as I despise Walmart, they have been doing a hell of a job undermining the artifically high notebook prices that were completely universal until they stepped-in. If you want a cheap laptop, you should actually buy one From Walmart, or From Dell, and actually get what you need, rather than buying some tablet PC, and trying (unsuccessfully) to upgrade it to what you need.

I would like to see more enforcement along the borders. Both of them. But one positive benefit will be that illegal immigrants won't be taken advantage of by heartless money grubbers who could afford to pay a decent wage if they wanted too.

Most of those crossing the border are just looking to better themselves and their families. We need a legal way to help those who want "the American Dream" and kick those listed above out.

These light sabers are pretty cool.

I saw one at Borders for $120 and was pretty impressed.

I would like to rat out various folks who offered me counterfeit copies of your "windows" product: these, and these, and these, and these, and .....

Stick it to 'em. And good luck!

So I got laptop and it runs this cheap knockoff of windows, they even misspelled the OS' name "lindows" or something

Number 1, they are not "his" stores. As CEO of Apple, he has a fiduciary responsible to Apple's owners (i.e., the shareholders). Pulling Wiley's books does not uphold this in any way; Steve Jobs is not Apple.

Before anyone gets on their high horse... Maybe what you meant was before anyone else gets on their high horse? Consider this. Ten Speed Press has published a book called, "How Wal*Mart is Destroying the World." Ten Speed press has published other books such as "Better than Chocolate: 50 Proven Ways to Feel Happier." Guess what--- Wal*Mart happens to sell that book. Even the Most Evil Corporation on the Planet (TM) hasn't stooped down to Apple's level.

So root for your Apple if that makes you feel good; they have every right to pull those books. But ask yourself this: what good has ever come from governments or corporations bullying the press? Are their citizens or customers somehoe better served? Will I have a better experience at The Apple Store because Apple has decided to pull some Mac books not because of their content but in retalitiation?

I say all this a long-time Mac user, Apple shareholder and overall fan of the company. But Apple is doing no good by this act, and it only serves to make Apple a certified bully. Think Different, indeed.

Last time I checked, you couldn't walk into Best Buy or Frys or Circuit City or CompUSA or........and buy a PC without Windows on it.

So, walk out of Best Buy, walk next door to Wal-Mart, and spend $200 for one with a different O/S. Don't watch the consumer computer market much? Or is it too upsetting to your anti-MS world view that the largest retailer in the world regularly sells inexpensive machines with a Linux distro, right next to inexpensive machines with WinXP, and you're in denial? Market forces, right there to click on.

Fuck that: don't give developing countries $100 computers, give them the $1000 ones that are being wasted on the so called developed countries - hey they're already developed, so they shouldn't need them, right?

Although I empathize with your troubles teaching spoiled kids, I have to say I found the technologies mentioned in this /. post pretty amazing, and found them to be in sharp contrast with what is being done in my own country.
I live in Brazil and just today I read in the morning newspaper about PC Conectado, which is supposed to be Brazil's answer to the problem of computer technology for the masses, and I found those technologies (the $100,00 laptop, the simputer, and the loband thing) to be quite an advance in terms empowering technology, concepts, and efforts to bring technology to the people.
The PC Conectado, in contrast, will sell for R$1,400 (that's US$ 535 at today's exchange rate). The high-fallutin' high-priests of Brazil's Free Software community are ecstatic because it'll come loaded with F/OSS software. That's good, but Brazil's minimum wage is R$ 260,00 ( = US$ 99 ), so PC Conectado is way expensive. In fact, it appears to be a stripped-down PC, and costing around what a stripped-down PC costs. It's not as cheap as it ought to be. Wal-Mart, the cheapo department store in USA, has 'puters for less (I've checked here today.)
So, in contrasting these 3 projects with the PC Conectado, I found nice food-for-thought. Here are my 2 cents futurology and thoughts:
1) While Free Software is nice, it may not be what people want, because it might not correspond to what people expect. It might just be that when people learn they can't play Windows warez games or office software in PC Conectado, they will uninstall GNU/Linux. Currently, for medium wage jobs in Brazil, the job market demmands some expertise in Windows software, and some might want to buy a PC to get that expertise and hone skills in Excel or whatever. If your hardware allows shifting to Windows, will they stick to GNU/Linux? I don't think so...
2) What is really needed is cheap hardware. You can't cheat like PC Conectado. You need $ 100 laptops. Cheap means cheap.
3) If you have custom hardware, there is no "turning back" to proprietary software.
4) Research groups must focus on new concepts. Old concepts will not only cost more, they might backfire. When you take low income populations, their whole model of what's "top" might be what is the dominant technology (and we know that's not the best choice).
5) Internet access is not a luxury. It's as much of a luxury as library access is a luxury. "The net is the computer." (TM Sun Microsystems) :-)
6) Hand in hand with this custom new hardware an net technologies, we need to teach children what computer programming is.Developing countries do *not* need government-subsidized programs to teach people to use Microsoft software. In the long run, this will empower developing countries and create a virtuous circle.
So, IMHO, "the $1000 ones [computers] that are being wasted on the so called developed countries" isn't gonna cut it. I really think governments of developing world must foster research groups with innovative ideas.

Will this device suffice? It turns any USB flash drive into an MP3 player for your car. It should have *slightly* better quality than your cassette adapter.

Grant Theft at WalMart

Like this one or this one? It's not that much of a stretch to get a cheap box, even with the disgustingly expensive Windows on it.

The fact that you've been seeing single bit errors is a sign you should be using ECC memory instead of cheapo Walmart RAM.

What about Walmart ECC memory?

you mean like this?

The fact is that the OS is not a big price for a major company.

Yeah, more variables are factored in to TCO. Like hardware...

When I can go on dell.com and order 10 2.4GHz Celeron machines with a copy of WinXP Pro for $349, it's not a big deal at all.

And in carefully choosing your hardware example, you arrive at the goal in which you started off on achieving. By picking hardware costing $349, you find a number that meshes with your TCO premise.

Now let's see the Linux cost. I'm going to get a maximum of $50 off those Dell machines for chosing Home instead of Pro, I can't 'not have' Windows on it. So that makes it $299/machine. Let's say the cost of installing Linux on each of these is $0.

If your premise were true, it would only be off by a mile. But since your premise is false, you're off by more. Switching to Linux, no company needs your cherry picked hardware for new desktops. This Microtel is almost half the price of your pick. At $200 a piece, they are plenty powerful for desktop use with any Linux operating system, but in enterprise use they would be used as thin clients on Linux, where they would last for at least 3 or 4 releases of Windows. And as has been stated by Walmart, Tigerdirect, and other distributors in the past, companies are buying these by the dozen and they are (were, don't know if they still are) having trouble keeping them in stock. Are they any good? We have some older ones with 900 Mhz to 1.4 Ghz processors and 128 MB SDRam, and after wiping Lindows that came on the ones we bought, I can tell you that they have been working flawlessly as both desktops and light duty servers. And they fly when clustered.

Is the company stuck with Dell as their sole supplier? Then maybe one of Dell's whitebox divisions or partners can supply boxes without an OS or with a Linux distro installed as has been reported previously. Most figures put Windows Pro at $100 and Windows Home at $50 on new hardware, but as most of us know, that gets wiped and imaged with the company approved image. And as some of us also know, companies start with XP Pro as part of the license on their images. So we really are talking about $100 Microsoft tax that gets thrown right out the window whether switching to Linux or using the company image of Windows.

Now let's look at my army of typists. None of them know how to use Linux/GNOME, OpenOffice or Evolution. So I train them.

Why? I know secretaries (and business owners) with decades of experience using computers who don't have a clue that they are using Windows (which version of Windows? What do you mean which version? I'm using Word/Wordperfect/browser, not Windows, what do you mean?). I know secretaries who type letters and reports all day, every day, who don't know what I'm talking about when I ask them which version of Word or Wordperfect that they are using. Or who know how to save a document in a format other than default.

If they are blissfully ignorant of the operating system they are using, why would you need to bring in a trainer to train them to use Linux?

I hire a training guy to come in for a day to give them a crash course on how to use Linux, and he charges me $200. However, I've got to pay my typists anyway, $100/ea for the day.

You really don't have a clue how much secretarial labor costs for 8 hours, do you? Or what the real costs are once you add in taxes, insurance, bookkeeping/accounting costs for each additional employee, etc. Maybe you should start asking employers why they defer hiring employees at the end of a fiscal qu

I spent yesterday afternoon farting about with a Air Hogs Firestormer. The plane makes a faring noise which adds to the fun we had!

I bought this cheapass monitor and got NO dead pixels. My brother got a Dell monitor and it has one. He doesn't notice though.