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Wal-Mart Lindows PCs Selling Well
andyring writes "CNN.com is reporting that sales of the $199 PCs have exceeded expectations. Although CNN terms them "full fledged, if low power," it seems customers don'd mind all that much if their computer does not run Windows and doesn't carry an Intel processor. Slashdot covered two reviews of those machines July 4."
but I bought one of those boxes because it was cheap, formatted and stuck a pirated copy of windows XP on it. I wonder how many other people have done the same thing.
I just bought one of these for my dad. I installed redhat 8.0 and he loves it! He doesn't know the difference between it and windows. It is fun to watch is use mozilla for web browsing and mail. If microsoft disappeared off the planet I really think desktop computing would go on fine at this point.
But my other question is this: I wonder how many of the computers have copies of windows installed on them by the end user? Be it transfered (old PC doesn't work, so put Win95 on this new one) or coppied.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
it seems customers don'd mind all that much if their computer does not run Windows and doesn't carry an Intel processor
Is having an Intel CPU still that big a deal to the average consumer? I know they still blow a ton of cash on advertising how a P4 will "make the internet faster" and the like, but does your average consumer care? They obviously care about Windows, not because it's Windows but because Deer Hunter 8 or 3D Home Recipe Book VI won't run on anything else. But the CPU?
"When it rains, it pours." --Morton's Salt
... how can this be anything but good for Linux?
Consider - the biggest excuse that people have used about Linux has been "nobody uses it, so nobody writes software for it."
Well, people are using it, now. This is the opportunity for Linux to show that it is, indeed, useful for everyday users... or not.
Face it - this is going to be Linux's baptism by fire. Let's try hoping that it survives, instead of making half-witticisms about Wal-Mart shoppers.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
These things don't come with monitors, modems, etc. I'd be really surprised if novices are buying these things. I guess they might be if they are getting the "extra-price-items"... like a monitor.
These seem like geek toys. Or maybe as a CPU upgrade for those with old PC's.
Sex - Find It
Take a reality pill. How many of the people buying Lindows PCs are actually leaving Linux in place? And how many are taking their bootleg copy of Windows 2k (or whatever) and installing that?
Would be great... Because leaving Lindows to Linux newcomers is really the worst thing that can happen to them! 1) proprietary stuff everywhere 2) using the system as root = welcome to viruses in the future and so on.
Users need a real and *easy to use* Linux system! A pre-installed Mandrake Linux (8.2 or 9.0) is in my opinion the best system they can be offered. It's real Free Software, it's secure, it's fast, it's reliable, and there are many many software available for it.
Lindows' success is the result of it's CEO's address large book really a bad for Linux because it's just an attempt to provide a *very badly designed* system that looks as closely as possible to Windows.
This isn't the future of masses computing in any way in my opinion.
My grand-dad went to buy a computer at a big chain store. He just wanted to look around on the web and email some friends/family. The sales droid tried to sell him a P4 2Ghz with all the bells and whistles. I ended up putting to gether a Duron 1.2G for $250 that does all he wants to do. Unless you are a big game freak or a geek (like most of us), people just don't need that much computing power.
Michael Loves Me!
I think this is further proof that PCs (hardware and software) are becoming commodity goods. Customers don't care about bells and whistles, they just want to browse the web and do email. The really scary thing is, people are starting to realize that you don't need expensive hardware and software to do the basic things most people do.
I think this is an excellent opportunity for small PC manufacturers, and maybe even OpenSource projects, to get their feet in customers' doors. And big vendors (cough Microsoft cough) should be afraid. Very afraid.
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Open Source Shirts
and I have a large penis. See there's a direct correlation there. Lindows is cheap and easy just like me!
I bought one in September to eval.
The 800 Mhz Via CPU is roughly equivalent to a 400 Mhz Celeron.
I popped in a 1.2 Ghz Celeron for $62 and it runs Much Better.
The 10 GB drive is also Very slow.
I could have built a much better machine for a little more money. Still, it isn't a bad deal.
I booted Lindows and took a quick look before blowing it away. It was really cheesy, with major pieces requiring additional purchase.
With apologies to Hanna-Barbera...
Lindows
Meet the Lindows
You're the modern Wal-Mart family
Prices
Are bottom rock
You're making Linux history
Let's force
Microsoft to retreat
This cheap
PC is so 31337!
When you're
Using Lindows
You can play all your Windows games
It still looks the same
You drive Bill Gates insane!
Constitutionally Correct
I'll bet 70% of the people buying the WalMart machines think they have Pentiums in them!! After all, they've been conditioned to accept that all computers have Pentium processors... it's only if you explicitly say "this does NOT have a Pentium" that you get those funny looks and people start to doubt. Most people think Macs have Pentiums - go ahhead and ask!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I bought one when my AMD K6-2 450 finally died and it's case was donated to my cats (they love old cases). Anyways, I just wanted a cheap system to turn into a simple home server. It works perfect. I've got it running RH8.0, Samba, a firewall/gateway setup using IPTables, DHCP server and I'll soon be adding some MP3 streaming so I can listen to MP3's all over the house. It has yet to dissapoint me, despite the lag when I'm on it (since I'm only actually on it 4 hours a week or so for tweaking). All in all, it's a great warm body machine (for when anything w/ a pulse will do).
DONT PANIC
In response to a few criticisms of Lindows proprietary software:
Quite frankly, I think Lindows is the best chance to topple the MS empire, because of the software itself and the business plan/model behind it. Once people are using Lindows, its a few steps from there to more traditional GNU/Linux distros.
Lindows is, quite frankly, very easy to use -- even for newbies. You can't underestimate how important that is for the typical user. Remember, your parents even have a hard time using Windows or MacOS!
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
It will be definately interesting to see how well these sell, and more importantly, what the sell-to-return ratio is after Christmas. I expect a lot of people are saying "hey, cheap computer!" and putting it under the tree.
Heck, for some guy buying a computer for his almost-never-used-a-PC-before granny/mother/aunt/etc this is a great present. Cheap, goes online, runs a word processor. They're not super-fast, but they're not retarded-slow either.
I doubt you'll see many gamers buying these, but for those who are just trying to get some letters printed and emails sent, it's a good deal.
I see a lot of people suggesting that it's likely that most of these cheap computers end up getting wiped clean and having Windows installed. However, I'd like to point out that most computer manufacturers and resellers are locking themselves into really bad situations with Microsoft only because they believe they can't sell these computers without an OS or with an OS other than Windows. Wal-Mart is proving otherwise. So, even if these computers get wiped clean, perhaps other major computer resellers will take note of the fact that they can sell their quality computers without having to lock themselves into the Microsoft trap. If you think about it, this could dramatically alter the way computers are sold in the very near future.
....they should really look at this and attempt to partner up with Wal-Mart and produce a Linux version of AOL. They're desperate for revenue right now, and appealing to the $200 PC market would be a good niche to get in on. They could have sold a $250 version which includes a "free" year of AOL or something. Still not a bad deal to the price-conscious shopper.
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
OK, I'm a physician, not a techie (I read slashdot because it's so hard to find anything else intelligent to read). So perhaps I can provide the "Joe Schmoe" perspective.
I wanted to confirm what people are saying about the average Joe Schmoe not needing computer power. I'm still running an AMD K6 200 MHz processor from 1997. I have a DSL connection and Win 98SE (shudder). I surf the web with IE6, run Yahoo! Messenger, and check email with Eudora, typically all at once, often while also playing bridge on M$N Zone (sorry, M$-haters, it's the best free bridge I've found!).
I couldn't sell this box for anything, let alone $200, yet it does everything I want to do. Sure, it slows down a bit when I use everything at once, but not enough to go out and spend money. If you're a Joe Schmoe like me.
So you're right. The common man doesn't need a monster CPU, etc. That being said, don't forget that usability is key. Most people will be completely unable to surf the web and send email if they have to do too much more than plug it in, turn it on, and follow some very user-friendly instructions. If the Lindows box can't do this, it's not going to do very well.
So, can it? I hear people saying that it doesn't even come with a monitor?
Pricetag outside matters more than Intel inside.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
- WalMart does not sell PCs for a liiving. It's jusy one of many products.
- If this product tanks WalMart will not be hurt at all.
- WalMart does not need Uncle Bill's blessing to make money (see first point).
- These are bare-bones, bottom of the pile PCs that are selling because they are cheap.
This is not a revolution in PC sales. This is a huge desicount chain selling a second-rate computer at the lowest price they possibly can as a side project that isn't even worth putting in their stores.Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Makes a change from "Slashdot posted the same review of these machines twice on July 4."
One thing that doesn't seem to be mentioned here is the importance of a sub $500 PC on who buys computers. Back around the time of the Commodore Vic 20 and 64 you had a huge number of parents buying dedicated computers for young children; and poor people buying computers for themselves. Since the death of the Amiga 500 we really haven't had new computers that are cheap enough for people to casually buy them. The effects of adding say 10 or 20 million home computers to the market in terms of the spread of knowledge, broadband, games... could be quite profound.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
If the chief advantage for windows in the consumer space is supposedly that consumers are not smart enough to realize that they can get a computer without windows...
Maybe they're also not smart enough to realize that they're getting a computer without Windows? If we don't trust the average purchaser to know that just because a P4 has a higher clock rate than an Athlon that it isn't necessarily faster, why would we expect them to realize whether the computer they're buying to send email has windows or lindows? To them it's a thing that sends email.
The average user probably views the OS and the computer with the same level of separation most of us assign to the transport and network layers.
Basically indistinguishable parts of the thing you use to get a web page.
paintball
That's why this is perfect, it's not a no OS at all solution, there is an OS on the machine. True grandma probably does not make a distinction between MS and linux, but her grandkids will and suddenly become aware that there are other things than microsoft in the world and that's a start... it doesn't really matter if they like linux. Linux is just another OS, they don't have to like linux, or BSD, just knowing there are other things out there is a start. Some will take the next step and play with them. Some will like them. Other's will like them better but not enough, contribute to something that already exists, or perhaps come up with something better.