Lindows.com Hypes An Upcoming $199 PC

prostoalex writes "After having struck a deal with Walmart on $299 PC, Lindows is planning to introduce $199 PC. ExtremeTech has the story, the official message from Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows, is posted on Lindows.com. Robertson claims that "for under 200 dollars, you'll be able to browse the Internet, check email and run a variety of software products for far less than the price of most handheld devices! A certified version of LindowsOS will come bundled with the PC"." I wonder if such a machine would fare any better than Larry Ellison's ThinkNIC.

Comments

Robertson's looking for information?

[bshroyer]

Note: This is an honest question, as I'm confused.

In his letter, Robertson (CEO of Lindows) comments on their legal battle against Microsoft over the trade name, and asks all of us out in userland to chime in, as they'd

"like to hear from anyone who had personal experience in the industry during those early years and can recall the history of the early windowing products such as Xerox's Star, VisiCorp's VisiOn, Apple's Lisa, Digital Research's GEM, Quarterdeck's DesQ, IBM's TopView, and others. "

This strikes me as odd - shouldn't it be pretty easy to get copies of not only the documentation, but even the software to which he refers? Is this a real request for information, or merely a request for sympathy?

Actually...

[11thangel]

I have a ThinkNIC that myself and several friends bought a year ago to tinker around with. It's actually quite the capable little machine. It runs Linux, comes with a basic TWM based X11 setup, Netscape (with proper plugins, etc), a terminal emulator, and a few other neat little things. It boots off a combination of an NVRAM chip and a CD. The CD they give you is the basic system, but we asked them for some information and they gave us the ISO for that same boot CD. They were even polite about it. We hacked it up a little bit without difficulty, so the machine is slightly configurable.

The downside is that yes, it lacks a harddrive. Personal preferences, like Netscape bookmarks, etc, get stored in the NVRAM, so you don't lose everything. But it's alot like web tv, where you get to surf, use basic email, but don't have the full complications of a complete computer. I admit, I wouldn't use one of them for my home system, but I'd easily give one to my grandmother if she ever changed her mind and decided that the internet was not in some manner connected with Satan.