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Though they have a point; my iPod won't charge in a universal USB charger, or even when connected to the computer it won't charge when its "dismounted" in Windows, and I am sure there's a reason for that

What iPod? I bought one of these dual port USB chargers and took it with me on a month long business trip, and it handily kept both my iPod Nano and my 4th generation 40 gig classic iPod charged. And my TomTom, my Treo650, and Nintendo DS. While on the trip, I replaced the Treo650 with an iPhone, and it kept that charged. Back home now, it continues to keep my iPhone charged.

This is what the 17 inch $1000 HP widescreen laptop looks like at Walmart.com:

64 Bit MS Vista Premium SP1
64 Bit AMD Turion Dual Core CPU 4 GB RAM
NVIDIA DX9 GeForce Go Graphics [Shared RAM]
DVD LightScribe Burner
250 GB HDD
Integrated Webcam, WiFi, Etc., Etc.

HP Pavilion Laptop

For $400 more:

64 Bit Vista Premium SP1
Intel Core 2 Dual CPU 4 GB RAM
Combo Blu-Ray Drive and DVD Burner. HD tuner card.
NVIDIA 8600M GS DX10 Graphics with 256 MB RAM
320 GB HDD

It doesn't matter what price point you look at.

The mass market Windows PC is always nipping at your heels. On price. On specs. On a recognizable brand name.

Walmart has taken to posting prominent disclaimers with its gOS systems:

This is a Linux based PC and will not perform completely like a Windows based machine.

To me that signals an early exit from the market.

Before I go into monologue mode, it looks like Dell already has something in the ultra slim ultra cheap arena. Dell EPP Inspiron 530S starts under $400, ok not as cheap as the Asus solution, but still.

There are choices in the consumer market.

You can choose a Mac. You can chose OEM Linux or OEM XP.

[No one wants to build from a kit of parts. Which is why the Geek looks like a space alien when he talks about unbundling the OS from the hardware.]

But the reality - once you get past the Geek - is that these aren't the choices people are making. Top Operating System Share Trend

It doesn't matter which stats you quote. The Mac continues to hold the profitable niche market it claimed about twenty-five years ago.

Linux brings up the rear, with a market share in the single digiit and a trend line as flat as the Kansas praries.

There is no mystery here.

Walmart will sell you the gOS laptop.

The GBook is a great beginner's laptop... This is a Linux based PC and will not perform completely like a Windows based machine. It can perform basic activities such as E-mail, Web Browsing, Music and Pictures.

Damning with faint praise and securely anchoring Linux's reputation in the home market as a bottom-feeder.

Walmart will also sell you an HP Pavilion laptop with 64 bit Vista Premium SP1, NVIDIA DX9 graphics, a dual core AMD Turion CPU and 4 GB RAM for $1000.

For the Intel Core 2 Duo with Blu-Ray drive, 64 bit Vista Premium SP1, HDTV tuner card and NViDIA 512 MB 8600 M GS DX10 graphics add $400.

There are choices in the consumer market.

You can choose a Mac. You can chose OEM Linux or OEM XP.

[No one wants to build from a kit of parts. Which is why the Geek looks like a space alien when he talks about unbundling the OS from the hardware.]

But the reality - once you get past the Geek - is that these aren't the choices people are making. Top Operating System Share Trend

It doesn't matter which stats you quote. The Mac continues to hold the profitable niche market it claimed about twenty-five years ago.

Linux brings up the rear, with a market share in the single digiit and a trend line as flat as the Kansas praries.

There is no mystery here.

Walmart will sell you the gOS laptop.

The GBook is a great beginner's laptop... This is a Linux based PC and will not perform completely like a Windows based machine. It can perform basic activities such as E-mail, Web Browsing, Music and Pictures.

Damning with faint praise and securely anchoring Linux's reputation in the home market as a bottom-feeder.

Walmart will also sell you an HP Pavilion laptop with 64 bit Vista Premium SP1, NVIDIA DX9 graphics, a dual core AMD Turion CPU and 4 GB RAM for $1000.

For the Intel Core 2 Duo with Blu-Ray drive, 64 bit Vista Premium SP1, HDTV tuner card and NViDIA 512 MB 8600 M GS DX10 graphics add $400.

There are choices in the consumer market.

You can choose a Mac. You can chose OEM Linux or OEM XP.

[No one wants to build from a kit of parts. Which is why the Geek looks like a space alien when he talks about unbundling the OS from the hardware.]

But the reality - once you get past the Geek - is that these aren't the choices people are making. Top Operating System Share Trend

It doesn't matter which stats you quote. The Mac continues to hold the profitable niche market it claimed about twenty-five years ago.

Linux brings up the rear, with a market share in the single digiit and a trend line as flat as the Kansas praries.

There is no mystery here.

Walmart will sell you the gOS laptop.

The GBook is a great beginner's laptop... This is a Linux based PC and will not perform completely like a Windows based machine. It can perform basic activities such as E-mail, Web Browsing, Music and Pictures.

Damning with faint praise and securely anchoring Linux's reputation in the home market as a bottom-feeder.

Walmart will also sell you an HP Pavilion laptop with 64 bit Vista Premium SP1, NVIDIA DX9 graphics, a dual core AMD Turion CPU and 4 GB RAM for $1000.

For the Intel Core 2 Duo with Blu-Ray drive, 64 bit Vista Premium SP1, HDTV tuner card and NViDIA 512 MB 8600 M GS DX10 graphics add $400.

So you are saying it took ten years for the price of the 5 MB HDD to drop to $2000. Which is far from mass market pricing in 1980.

Fast forward to 2001-2002:

Midline is a 2 GHz P4 desktop with 512 MB MB of RAM, a 100 MB HDD and NVIDIA 4600 graphics. $1200 or thereabouts.

In 2008 these are specs of a $1000 HP laptop from Walmart.com

64 Bit Vista SP1 Premium
AMD 64 bit Dual Core Turion CPU
NVIDA GeForce Go DX9 Graphics
17" wide-screen display
4 GB RAM
250 GB HDD
LightScribe DVD Burner [burn your own labels]
Integrated WiFi, Webcam, Etc., Etc.

For $400 more you get the Intel Dual Core CPU, NViDIA 8600M 512 MB DX10 graphics, a 320 GB HDD and a Blue Ray Player/DVD burner with your 64 bit OS and 4GB RAM. HP 17" Pavilion Laptop.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the bundled ATSC HDTV tuner card?

So you are saying it took ten years for the price of the 5 MB HDD to drop to $2000. Which is far from mass market pricing in 1980.

Fast forward to 2001-2002:

Midline is a 2 GHz P4 desktop with 512 MB MB of RAM, a 100 MB HDD and NVIDIA 4600 graphics. $1200 or thereabouts.

In 2008 these are specs of a $1000 HP laptop from Walmart.com

64 Bit Vista SP1 Premium
AMD 64 bit Dual Core Turion CPU
NVIDA GeForce Go DX9 Graphics
17" wide-screen display
4 GB RAM
250 GB HDD
LightScribe DVD Burner [burn your own labels]
Integrated WiFi, Webcam, Etc., Etc.

For $400 more you get the Intel Dual Core CPU, NViDIA 8600M 512 MB DX10 graphics, a 320 GB HDD and a Blue Ray Player/DVD burner with your 64 bit OS and 4GB RAM. HP 17" Pavilion Laptop.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the bundled ATSC HDTV tuner card?

I already purchased and have been using the D-Link DGP1200 bought at walmart for $180 to do the exact same thing.

Unlike the Roku, you can watch any content on your PC, and even get to the Netflix site to choose the movie you want to watch (if you have a bookmark to get their) It is even technically HD quality (though the stream from netflix isn't.)

I think it's possible. You can get a portable DVD player for $80 retail. This thing has the same screen, probably doesn't have a DVD drive, but has some other internals that a different. Cut out the cost of the DVD licensing fees, and you could easily have an ebook reader using this screen for $75. Granted, I'm not so sure that these screens are the best for reading a lot of text. An eInk display would probably work a lot better. But it's definitely doable at that price.

"it's a real shame that people don't take the time to find out every single idea anyone has ever had so they don't duplicate things"

I know! It's not like you can just do a "search" of the "internet" for words like "1 gigapixel" and get results!.

say... that would be useful, if there was a website where you could search the entire internet with just a few key words... someone should invent that! I'd use it everyday!



but seriously this isn't news worthy at all. It was 5 years ago when 6 megapixel cameras were $1,000+, but I can buy a 10 megapixel from walmart for $150. Give me $15,000 and I can do the same thing.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8224470

You can keep the change.

At this point, I doubt I'll ever buy another photo printer. For routine, share-then-throw-away stuff, I have a color laser that is far cheaper than any of the inkjets I've ever seen. For pictures I want to frame and keep, I can upload the images to Wal-Mart's website and pick them up at the store an hour later. Advantages:

• Price. I ran the numbers, and my personal inkjet costs more in supplies alone than Wal-Mart's options, and that's assuming that my home-printed 8x10 comes out perfectly the first time and doesn't smear. Remember, if you pay a photo shop, you're only charged for the prints that actually turn out. You don't get refund on ink you waste at home.
• Speed. It's actually quicker for me to upload photos and go fetch them than it is to babysit my inkjet.
• Quality. I've had 8x10s printed from 7MP source images, and the results were astounding - as in you could make out individual blades of grass, and use a magnifying glass to see what time the picture was taken by looking at the hands of a watch in the photo. I never managed to get results half that good at home. Also, it uses the same processing as regular photos, so your pictures come back on actual photo paper.
• Distance. I can have pictures developed at a different store than the one near my house. My mom seems to be allergic to computers and refuses to get one, and she also lives a half-day drive away from me. I've sent pictures to her local store so she can get them an hour after I've taken them.

I don't want to sound like a Wal-Mart shill. There are lots of online options to pick from, and that's just the one that happens to be most convenient for me. Now, I can understand why people wouldn't want to have certain photos developed, particularly those of a particularly personal nature, but I'd much rather farm my printing out than mess with it myself anymore.

Look, if anyone just does a basic analysis, you'll see that there's this circular process where the heavier operating system requires new hardware, forcing people to buy both to keep up with the times, which both them and the manufacturer want.

According to this basic analysis(pdf), debian Etch is an order of magnitude larger and more complex than Vista. And yet it doesn't require this "new hardware" you're speaking of.

In fact in addition to the x86-32 and x86-64 targets Vista aims for it also runs on alpha, sparc, arm, powerpc, hppa, ia64, mips and s390. From the toys to spacecraft, from webservers to 85.2% of the world's top 500 supercomputers it'll run on almost anything. That's engineering.

This will not end until they have a solid competitor, period, and that means the linux geeks have got to get off their high horse and make an easy, packaged, "buy your box from dell with it pre-loaded" version of it your grandma can use.

You have been able to buy PCs preloaded with linux from Walmart, Dell, IBM, HP and many others for several years.

Because, personally, i'm getting a little sick of getting these operating systems from Microsoft which I swear to God have code running several extra loops just to bog it down so that only the most bleeding edge (aka money I don't want to spend) boxes can handle it reasonably.

So switch. It's time. Ballmer says Vista is a work in progress. Gates says its replacement is a year out. Let's take their word for it. This is a great window of opportunity to justify looking at alternatives.

The cheapest Vista Basic laptop at Walmart.com is $500.

15" widescreen LCD. 1.86 Celeron M CPU, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, CD-R/DVD-ROM Drive.

The gOS laptop at $400:

1.6 GHz VIA CPU, 512 MB RAM and a 60 GB HDD.

The problem is that the next step up is all Vista Premium.

17" screen. 2 GB RAM. The dual core CPU and and so. For about $100 less than last fall's holiday special.

The problem is that - long term - even Walmart with its enormous purchasing power hasn't been able to sell OEM Linux at a meaningful discount.

The problem is that the Linux PC at Walmart is always the bottom feeder.

There is never a link to so basic an accessory as a printer.

While the specs on the Windows machine look significantly better even at entry level. It has a recognizable brand name - and what looks like "crapware" to the Geek - is familiar and reassuring to everyone else.

The cheapest Vista Basic laptop at Walmart.com is $500.

15" widescreen LCD. 1.86 Celeron M CPU, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, CD-R/DVD-ROM Drive.

The gOS laptop at $400:

1.6 GHz VIA CPU, 512 MB RAM and a 60 GB HDD.

The problem is that the next step up is all Vista Premium.

17" screen. 2 GB RAM. The dual core CPU and and so. For about $100 less than last fall's holiday special.

The problem is that - long term - even Walmart with its enormous purchasing power hasn't been able to sell OEM Linux at a meaningful discount.

The problem is that the Linux PC at Walmart is always the bottom feeder.

There is never a link to so basic an accessory as a printer.

While the specs on the Windows machine look significantly better even at entry level. It has a recognizable brand name - and what looks like "crapware" to the Geek - is familiar and reassuring to everyone else.

Those are UK Freeview tuners. Which are cheaper specifically because they do not receive HD. The US went for HD from the start, which costs more initially, but it also means that we won't have to toss out a bunch of electronics all over again to maybe get HD by 2012, like will happen in the UK. Some of us have been getting HD for over four years now.

The choice they are making is for Vista:

Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008

In the Net Applications stats Vista is the only OS showing significant growth - or, for that matter, any growth at all.

What the Mac platform loses the MacIntel platform wins, and, as for Linux it remains precisely where the Intel exec would place it, at 0.65%.

Operating System Market Share for February, 2008

The W3Schools stats are kinder to Linux. But the trend lines are the same. 8% for Vista. 8% for OSX and Linux combined. It took OSX and Linux five years to get where Vista is now.

The gBook retains a toehold for now. But the dual core Vista Premium laptop starts at $550. OS Platform Statistics

Linux is for sale at Dell and Walmart

The gPc has disappeared from Walmart.com [March 28]. You are redirected to the $278 Everex Impact Desktop PC. The same system upgraded to 1 GB RAM and Vista Home Basic.

The $400 VIA gBook hangs on for now. But the dual core Acer AMD laptop with Vista Premium is $550. Long-term, Walmart hasn't been able to sell OEM Linux at prices that significantly undercut Windows - and, lord knows, they have tried.

Originally in Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

It was even in a slashdot story at some point: http://slashdot.org/articles/06/03/28/2235246.shtml

This may have come full circle as Briggs & Stratton now owns Simplicity/Snapper and has the Brute product line for sale there:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8585731

The assertion that Asus "flipped the laptop world on its head with a stupidly low price point" made in this article simply isn't true. Sub-$500 laptops have been around for some time now. And, for the money, the Asus really isn't even a particularly good deal. For $100 more, you can buy a laptop with an actual 60GB hard drive and much more muscular processor. The main advantage to the Eee isn't its price point, but the fact that it is very small (and the screen is perhaps too small as the parent points out), light, and durable (since it has a solid-state hard drive).

The assertion that Asus "flipped the laptop world on its head with a stupidly low price point" made in this article simply isn't true. Sub-$500 laptops have been around for some time now. And, for the money, the Asus really isn't even a particularly good deal. For $100 more, you can buy a laptop with an actual 60GB hard drive and much more muscular processor. The main advantage to the Eee isn't its price point, but the fact that it is very small (and the screen is perhaps too small as the parent points out), light, and durable (since it has a solid-state hard drive).

• selling out in the summary, goes to the previous /. article about it, in which
• product sales page goes to a list of reviews.

Newer version. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8304655

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614

Not Sold Online.

Huh?

Who pays $60 for a DVD player when you can get one for $30?

"hey argue that by forcing manufacturers, who already have thin margins to cut their margins even further by creating cheaper and cheaper commodity hardware, it will limit the likelihood of manufacturers investing in high-margin, high-value, cutting edge hardware- and will therefore limit the development of said hardware."

You can go to Walmart and buy a complete PC system with LCD for $400, even less online. Has that stopped manufactures from making faster processors and video cards? Of course not, and neither will cheap laptops.

The Eee PC is no threat to Sony or any other major manufacture. It has no dvd-rw drive, no hard drive, and the cheapest $300 model only has 2gb of storage. 2gb! Most laptops have more ram than this has total storage! It costs $500 to get a Eee with only 8gb, and for that price you could buy a full-sized 1.86ghz Inspiron 1525 from Dell or Walmart has several laptops betweeen $400 and $500

Saying the Eee PC threatens laptop manufactures is like saying motorcycles threaten SUV sales. If they really want to be competitive, Sony should make a Eee PC clone. I'm sure there's money to be made selling a 7" LCD, 2gb storage and 900mhz processor for $300.

Sony's argument is BS. I would think they'd be more worried about the full-sized $500 laptops competing with their $1,500 notebooks considering they're much closer in specs.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8245470

For the curious, the reason I had two iPods is that I took my 40 gigabyte hard-drive based model that has my complete library, for listening to music in the hotel, and my Nano for listening to audio books and podcasts in the hotel and on the go. The flash-based players are better for the latter, because they are more response if you miss something and need to skip back a few seconds.

If I were doing that trip again now, I'd probably buy a Kindle. That would be perfect for a train trip.

The history of the web appliance is crash and burn.

There is always something more that makes the full-featured PC the better value.

I have yet to see hard numbers for sales of the gPC at Walmart.

The gPC shipped with a non-functional modem. Walmart has a lot of customers in rural areas and small towns who can afford AOL Essentials at $10/mo but can't get broadband at any price.

BTW the Everex Vista Basic Desktop is $278.

If he did, he wasn't the only one.

I've yet to see anyone here post actual numbers for sales of the gPC.

The rave reviews came from Geeks. Not from the Walmart customer who needed a functional modem, dial-up at $10 a month. Walmart has a lot of customers who fit that profile.

But one thing that is catching on is "anything but Vista"

You'll find the gPC at Walmart.com. The only Linux box that you will find at Walmart.com. But you will also find a full line-up of Vista machines.

--- and a $100 multifunction printer that ships with a Vista driver.

Windows Vista sales have been strongest at the "high" end. Vista Premium and Ultimate.

The $600 Dual Core Acer desktop with 20" widescreen LCD monitor.

Strong enough to help fuel 20% growth in Microsoft's client division in the first and second quarters of fiscal 2008. Microsoft is out-performing the tech sector. It is out-performing Apple. It is out-performing Google.

I will wait until Walmart will have their say:

right now it's fifty-fifty (4/4), not counting Playstation.

http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?ic=48_0&ref=125875.331064&catNavId=62055

The hardware to run Vista Premium is $650 at Walmart.com.

The Dual-Core Vista Premium desktop with 2B RAM, 320 GB HDD and the 20 inch widescreen monitor is fast becoming the norm at entry level.

The OfficeMax Christmas special was the $800 Dual-Core HP Premium Vista Premium laptop bundled with an HP multifunction printer and a 6.2 megapixel digital camera.

How many of those who are drawn to these social sites own cell phones, digital cameras, photo quality ink jet printers, camcorders, mp3 players, webcams, a video game console?

How many are billed monthly for cable and broadband Internet? How many are subscribers to XBox Live?

The Geek refuses to see what is perfectly obvious to everyone else. The computer, the high tech gadget, sells to the middle class. The family with significant disposable income.

In a year when Linux showed no growth on the desktop whatever. OS Platform Stats

It was January 31st before Vista entered the consumer market.

Late spring or early summer before the first mid-line DX10 cards appeared.

OEM system sales have been strongest for Vista Premium and Ultimate. TouchSmart, the media PC, the high-end laptop. The product doesn't look like the generic XP box and it sure as hell isn't running on generic XP hardware.

Joe's new 17" widescreen laptop has a dual core CPU.

2 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, a Light-Scribe DVD burner, surround sound, a fingerprint reader, integrated WiFi, EVDO, a webcam and pretty much everything else that be shoehorned into the case - and all of it with working Vista drivers.

Joe isn't coming into your shop to "upgrade" to XP - or Linux. He's checking out of Best Buy with Office 2007 retail boxed. The Year of Office 2007

Microsoft does hire bright minds. It's a pity what they do to them. And with them.

As for poorly trying to attack the NT platform for multi-tasking,...

The "NT platform" didn't invent multitasking. They cribbed it from the Mach kernel with the help of Dave Cutler. That's what they meant by "Unix underpinnings". Unfortunately, like a psychotic french chef, they'll adopt the best recipe for bouillabaisse but they don't like the flavor until they pee in it. The result was so hideously insecure it nearly broke the Internet - and that's saying something. The Internet was designed to survive nuclear war, but Code Red nearly broke it. I will concede that NT was the first useful Windows platform - but not that better alternatives didn't exist even then.

You evade the point that by the time NT came out in 1992, Unix had had multitasking for more than 20 years. Let's not forget your statement, shall we?:

assuming Windows users were like Mac users and were only capable of running one application at a time...

... As if .mac were the only alternative. Lovely. Say what you want about .mac and nobody cares. OS X is Unix. When Windows is a Unix, get back to me, k? Did you know OS X server has drag and drop clustering, and network imaging built right in? I didn't think so.

Disparage Apple's video playback all you want. I don't care for any DRM'd format so you're not going to bother me. I would bet a week's pay you couldn't decode a token string into a framebuffer using only the specification and C between now and the end of your pitiful existence, but I can and you miss the point: iTunes users care enough to avoid Vista, and that's the only thing saving this post from being off topic.

If you want to further try to argue the multi-tasking issue as a Windows Vista issue, go look up BeOS...

Cute. You're bringing up BeOS. You don't even do your homework well enough to check my slashdot user page where my favorite quote sits:

"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it." Jean-Louis Gassée, former CEO, BeOS

And you have the gall to call me semi-retarded.

Then go look up a little fact that Vista is the only major consumer OS....

You know, if you narrow the scope of that statement any more it's going to disappear entirely. Who decides "major"? Who decides "consumer"? I'm asking because Shuttle has just announced a box that's going to clean your clock, the eee is sweeping the world, the olpc is selling in the millions of units and for years you have been able to buy a Linux PC at Wal-Mart, including the $200 PC I'm typing this on (but I got it from zareason and it works just fine, thanks, and no it's not my only one).

Then go look up a little fact that Vista is the only major consumer OS that uses realtime scheduling for multi-media, something OS X just can't do.

OK, let's talk about the Vista scheduler a little bit. You've got some insight into this you would like to share. It's completely fa

With the cost of portable DVD players, why wouldn't most people have a DVD player you can use in the car.

Then you would be wrong - and MS Office stands as proof:

Through end of November, U.S. retail PC software sales are up 10.3 percent year over year as measured in dollar volume, according to NPD. By comparison, Office sales are up 50.7 percent, by the same measure and in the same time frame.

"Here's the really interesting statistic," said...NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis. "Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent.

The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, Swenson said. "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog. If the senior execs at Best Buy, Office Depot, etc. don't buy Jeff Raikes [president of Microsoft's Business division] a beer the next time he's in town, something is seriously wrong."

Office U.S. Black Friday Sales

Unit Growth - All 65.8%
Mac Only - 215.8%

Dollar Growth - All 63.5%
Mac Only - 235.3% The Year of Office 2007

The Dell Inspiron Desktop with 19 inch LCD monitor, Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, DVD burner and Vista Premium is $648.

It is safe to assume you will walk out of the store with support for both dial-up and broadband. Which matters if you live in the outland suburbs or rural areas as many Walmart customers do.

2 GB ReadyBoost Flash on a key chain is $30.

The HP multifunction printer-scanner with drivers for Vista and the Mac starts at $50.

The el cheapo Linux PC is unlikely to sell with either a matching printer or monitor - leaving the newcomer quite literally in the dark about what to do next.

After reading it though, I noticed that 1) it is from April 2007 and 2) those players didn't come through.

Really? That looks like it's sub-$200 and available today to me.

You see the much same thing in the w3Schools OS Platform Stats.

There are, by some estimates, one billion Windows users.

To claim 14% of a market that size in one year would be pure fantasy in any other context.

MS Vista was the only OS showing significant growth in 2007. Linux has gained absolutely no traction in the w3Schools stats in the better part of five years.

Vista's strength has been in OEM sales of Vista Premium and Ultimate in the consumer market.

That is good news for Dell, HP and the big box retailer.

The el cheapo $200 Linux box - the "network appliance" - makes headlines on Slashdot. But that isn't the only price point that interests Walmart - or the Walmart shopper: HP TouchSmart Desktop PC

Not only that, but the brand name multifunction color printer-scanner with a Vista driver will set him back less than $50. HP All-In-Printer & HP 21 Ink

The Geek tries to frame the "Microsoft Tax" as a percentage of the price of the computer. But the ordinary user - the middle class buyer - is looking at the price of the system bundle, the cost of services and consumables.

OEM Vista is a one-time expense.

The ink jet cartridge or the monthly bill for Roadrunner won't come any cheaper if he migrates to Linux.

You see the much same thing in the w3Schools OS Platform Stats.

There are, by some estimates, one billion Windows users.

To claim 14% of a market that size in one year would be pure fantasy in any other context.

MS Vista was the only OS showing significant growth in 2007. Linux has gained absolutely no traction in the w3Schools stats in the better part of five years.

Vista's strength has been in OEM sales of Vista Premium and Ultimate in the consumer market.

That is good news for Dell, HP and the big box retailer.

The el cheapo $200 Linux box - the "network appliance" - makes headlines on Slashdot. But that isn't the only price point that interests Walmart - or the Walmart shopper: HP TouchSmart Desktop PC

Not only that, but the brand name multifunction color printer-scanner with a Vista driver will set him back less than $50. HP All-In-Printer & HP 21 Ink

The Geek tries to frame the "Microsoft Tax" as a percentage of the price of the computer. But the ordinary user - the middle class buyer - is looking at the price of the system bundle, the cost of services and consumables.

OEM Vista is a one-time expense.

The ink jet cartridge or the monthly bill for Roadrunner won't come any cheaper if he migrates to Linux.

I have heard this mantra repeated almost daily on Slashdot for five years, but where is the evidence to support it?

The Ww3Schools stats have the virtue of being easily accessible and track long-term trends. No one here complains when you quote the adoption rates for Firefox.

But Vista will end the year in the w3Schools stats with a 6% to 7% market share. Linux at 3% - little changed since the dawn of time. OS Platform Stats

Vista's strength has been in OEM consumer sales of Premium and Ultimate editions.

Which means its share of the inherently middle class home and SOHO markets is probably much greater than its presence on this developer's site would suggest.

How then do you make the argument that Linux is in track and Microsoft is not?

Three things struck me as significant in Friday's story on the budget Linux Walmart PC. PC Mag Slams Cheap Wal-Mart Linux Desktop

1 The Geek had to defend the sale of a Linux PC without a working modem.

Walmart services the poorest outland suburbs and rural areas where broadband penetration is weak and costs are high. Walmart still sells AOL Essential Services, dial-up at $9.95 a month.

Locally, we have seen a come-back for the home town based dial-up ISP, an aging demographic, higher prices for basic needs, may be a part of it.

2 The Geek gave the gPC the five-star rating.

The novice PC shopper struggling with patchwork hardware and an OS still in beta reluctantly awarded one star.

3 The Geek fumed that the newcomer had to be warned that a Linux PC wouldn't run the software written for the OS with 90% of the home market.

While the Half-Life Anthology for Windows sells retail boxed at the bargain bin price of $15. The Geek still obviously entranced by the notion that the "network appliance" is a marketable product.

The Walmart shopper would probably have been even more pissed off by the fact this alleged "system" wasn't being sold with a matching printer and monitor, The HP multifunction printer for the Mac and Windows was $50.

Fisher-Price has a video clip advertising its FP3 player. In this clip, they said "You could copy the songs to the player from the CDs you already own". http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4966369 Click on Watch a clip LoL

It is more like 40% than 60%.

Walmart is still associated with low income shoppers in outland suburbs and rural areas where broadband penetration is weak.

That is one reason why there has been a resurgence in the mom & pop dial-up ISP. Why Walmart.com still advertises dial-up AOL. AOL Essential Service $9.95 a month.

But the killer phrase: "Programs written for Mac or Windows will not run."
DUH! No shit, Dick Tracy! It's fucking LINUX, you MORONS!

But that is the killer phrase, the deal breaker for most Walmart shoppers. There are hundreds of bargain bin games and other apps that will run on a Windows PC that you can find anywhere at garage sale prices.

The original Half-Life is approaching ten years in print.

Print Shop has been around since the Apple II and there is still nothing in FOSS to replace it.

You could also try the book here, too.

It's hard to be all things to all people.

If you shop at WalMart, CFLs are already pretty cheap. As far as efficiency goes, I use more CFLs to light a room than incandescents. I also leave them on when I leave my apartment, because why bother turning off such efficient lights? I'm not sure that there are always savings. Too bad we threw out the system where everyone could decide for themselves what to do.

A lot of us learned to experiment and use our minds as kids on fisher-price stuff.
However that being said censoring adults is no substitute for supervising children.

Just in case you did want a fisher-price internet for your 3 year old slashdotter-in-training.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5788078
Fisher-Price Easy-Link Internet Launch Pad, Elmo and Dragon Tales

I don't do Wal-Mart partly because I disapprove of some of their policies which I think are bad for the country but mostly because their parking lot which routes all foot traffic across the auto entrance/exit traffic is the scariest place in Vermont. But I do go to Best Buy from time to time. They have very few cheap DTV sets. The least expensive I remember seeing was $135 and that was on sale. Most of their sets are $300 and up. Same with Costco. I just checked Walmart.com for "TVs under 19 inches" -- which looks to be the lowest priced catagory. They have three at $285, $233 and $287. http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?ic=24_0&ref=125875.331180+500748.500761&catNavId=3996

Need a Wii? Walmart has them, but you have to buy a $677 bundle of console + a crappy accessory + six games. All of this, for shipping some time between December 27 and January 25.

Personally, I'm waiting for the Christmas rush to pass so I can get the console without a forced bundle.

DRM.

Your boss demands content protection. Your family expects DVD play. The Geek has his freedom. Microsoft has one billion users for its client OS.

Software and hardware. The high price of the OS

The HP Vista Premium Desktop with 20" LCD Monitor, Dual Core AMD CPU, and 320 GB HDD is $640 at Walmart.com. The HP multifunction Windows printer-scanner at Walmart.com starts at $50.

No one gives a damn about the price of the OS.

You do not see mass market pricing for PC hardware and software in the immature - fragmented - market that existed before MSDOS and Windows.

FOSS projects like Firefox and OpenOffice.org have visibility and financial support precisely because they have been ported to Windows or began as native Windows apps.

Standards

The standards committe takes the Greyhound bus and spends most of its time quarreling over who gets to sit up front. The proprietary vendor rides the executive jet and has made his decisions before take-off.

but their popularity doesn't match what Fedora and Ubuntu have been able to carve out in the Linux Desktop market.

Funny, when I bought my mother-in-law a $300 Wal-Mart PC, it came pre-loaded with Linspire, a KDE distro.

I promptly removed it in favor of SimplyMEPIS, another KDE distro.

Here's a $199 PC, which runs Enlightenment.