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Three LindowsOS PCs Reviewed
Eugenia writes "Not one, but three LindowsOS-based PCs (in the value range of $199 USD) were reviewed online by WashingtonPost. A TigerDirect PC, the traditional WalMart/MicrotelPC and one from Nova Computech. The reviewer says that these PCs while are very low-end today, compared to PCs 2 years ago, are actually pretty good solutions for home usage. The reviewer found them lacking in the gaming (no respectable 3D gfx card included), expandibility departments and while he mentions that Linux-based LindowsOS is affordable, is not a panacea as it lacks in good USB support and other demanding areas of our modern times."
what year is this again 1998?? so after the OS that leaves what 1.5 gigs, I guess they would make good dumb X terminals. good luck doing anything else
It also apparently lacks Ispell.
a cea
Sure, the *English* word is panacea.
But the GREEK word that panacea is derived from is "panakeia" -- spelled as in the posting -- meaning (like the English word) a cure-all.
I am not making this up:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pan
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
Im not sure at which point this year he picked these machines up, but within the past month ive picked up a few of the walmart variety, and ive got to say that theyre fine. I purchased the 200 dollar model and i got a 1.2GHz Duron,128,nic,sound,video,20GB HD...(Ironically, im installing mandrake on one now). :p
For the low low price of just 217 (My shipping was much lower than his?), i got this guy shipped right to my doorstep. Honestly, theyre great. Fantastic.
Although i wasnt the biggest supporter of Lindows before, after seeing it in action, it really is what my grandmother would need to use Linux. (It even comes with a recovery CD)
Its also worth mentioning that for an extra couple hundred (was $397 for me with shipping) you can have a 14.1 inch flatpanel included with that. As far as the quality goes, its nothing id use for proffesional imaging, but for surfing and sims its more than fine.
Sounds like a deal to me.
And NO, i dont work for walmart.com
When my trip was finished, it fit into my big Samsonite and I took it back with me. I did two things when I got back home - move the power supply button to 220 and the switch the OS to SuSE Linux. I changed to SuSE because I like that distro more than Michael Robertson's 'apt-get' for a fee'. That's the weakest part of the whole deal.
I just put Red Hat 9 on the box about a week ago. It runs a little slower, but pretty well all in all. I think it was a good value. It's on all the time and it stands up pretty well. If it runs for a year, it's paid itself back.
I've been swashdotted -- Elmer Fudd
The panakeia / panacea error is not, technically speaking, a typo. It is a language error: panakeia is the Greek spelling of the Greek word, panacea the Latin transliteration. In English, words "naturalized" from Greek before ~1900 are spelled with the Latin transliteration (because most often they were, in fact, borrowed from Latin, which had borrowed them from Greek); after ~1900 with a stricter transliteration. The English spelling is of course panacea.
>> Despite their scaled-back features, these computers run on AMD Duron 1.0- or 1.1GHz processors, making them speedy enough for word processing, Internet access, working with digital pictures and playing some games.
I think 1GHz is MORE than good enough for word processing and internet browsing. I was doing the said activities on a 100 MHz machine back in the old days without much trouble. Otherwise the review is fair and notes that the machines are able to do what they are designed for.
We set 4 of them up for junior employees... They happily chug away with Mandrake on them. Lindows was kind of neat, but we wanted machines that would listen to our LDAP server (running OS X). We just mount the OS X Users share point via NFS and away they go. Each machine has Mozilla on it plus an email application, and they are useful for our web researchers.
They don't have the maintenance headache (and cost) of a Windows machine, and are cheaper than the eMacs that we otherwise use for low end computing.
Alex
You seem to assume that the person writing the article also writes the headline. That's not commonplace.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
well, to be fair, if it was scrounged from a laptop, and it is a 3GB drive, that means its probably old and spins at around 4500 RPM. That will definitely impact the performance of the machine. Especially if its an ATA-33 drive.
Now, for the price, this kind of performance is fine. But it is viable to say that this hard drive could theoretically be slowing things down. Sounds like the system could be waiting for the drive to feed data if it is as low end as I've postulated.
Only the novapcs mentions it is using a sis 730 mobo,
.doc, xls. or .ppt suffixes.
the wallmart pc uses probably a Integrated TRIDENT BLADE 2D/3D graphics video.
the wintermart probably uses a Integrated S3 Savage 4 video up to 32 mb ram.
Now tell me why cannot play quake 3 on either of these? The reviewer should have tried it! OK QII with 300 fps in 1600x1200FSAA is not possible but 25 FPS in 640x480 should work. (Is there a port for QIII?)
(Warning lots of copy and paste work below.)
tiger direct
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* AMD® Duronâ 1.0GHz Processor Learn More
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* Onboard Premium Audio
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* PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
* Monitor Sold Separately
wallmart
icrotel SYSMAR417 PC With Lycoris OS & AMD Duron 1.1GHz
$199.98
Availability: Usually takes 2 to 7 business days to process before shipping.
Shipping Cost: To see the shipping cost for this item, add it to your cart.
128 MB memory
10 GB hard drive
CD-ROM drive
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet connection
Lycoris Desktop/LX operating system (Linux-based)
Modem and floppy disk drive are not included
This item is currently available online only.
Key Features and Description
Note: Linux operating systems may not be compatible with some dial-up Internet services, such as AOL or Wal-Mart Connect. Microtel can only guarantee Linux-based OS compatibility with factory-installed components. Microtel will not be responsible for the installation and operation of third-party hardware or software used with its computers that have these operating systems.
The Linux-based operating system in these PCs is not compatible with any Microsoft Windows programs, however, it is great for basic operations such as email, Web browsing and instant messaging and can be easily upgraded for compatibility with Microsoft Office documents that have
* AMD Duron 1.1 GHz processor with 3DNow! technology
* 200 MHz frontside bus
* 128 MB SDRAM, expandable to 1 GB
* 133 MHz memory speed
* 10 GB Ultra-ATA 100 hard drive, 5400 rpm (total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment)
* 52x CD-ROM drive
* Integrated video with up to 8 MB shared video memory
* Integrated AC '97 audio
* Integrated 10/100 Ethernet connection
* Mid ATX tower case (17.5"D x 7.5"W x 15"H)
* Available external drive bays: two 5.25-inch, one 3.5-inch internal
* 2 available PCI slots
* Serial port
* Parallel port
* Two USB 1.1 ports
* 104-key keyboard
* 2-button mouse with wheel
* Audio port (line-in, line-out, mic-in)
* Stereo speakers
* 1-year warranty, return to manufacturer
Software includes:
* GIMP digital image editor
* Word processor, spreadsheet, presentation maker, addressbook, calendar
* Contact manager and time management
* Digikam digital camera software supporting over 162 digital cameras
* Mozilla Web browser and email client
* XMMS MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WA
Just mentioning what I happened to notice. Conclusions, if any, are left to the reader.
From the article:
"The machine is agonizingly slow because of its tiny 3GB drive...."
Seems pretty clear to me.
"Bigger" drives are faster when all else is equal, but not so much for the reason you've stated (fragmentation).
You mentioned seek time, which is one reason, but not because of fragmentation... If you're only using 3GB of data, on a 3GB disk a read may have to seek from the innermost track to the outermost track and back. With a larger drive 3GB full, it would only be using the outermost tracks, and would not have to seek as far.
Bigger drives also pack the bits more densely. This means that for every rotation more data is passed by the read/write heads, resulting in a faster transfer rate.
Higher RPM and bigger drive both give you better transfer rates. What higher RPM also gets you, though, is lower rotational latency. Suppose one part of the disk is under the read head, but the part of the disk you want to read is on the other side of the platter. You have to wait a full half rotation before the data can be read. The higher the RPM the quicker the right part of the platter reaches the read head.
No doubt /.'ers are quite familiar with Lindows and Linux. Considering the article ran in the Washington Post, albeit online, I am a little surprised more emphasis wasn't placed on the fact that the OS was not any type of Windows product, and, if Joe/Jane Sixpack were to buy one thinking he or she could run M$ stuff on a $200 machine, he or she would likely be sorely disappointed.
I am a big fan of Walmart et al making this move, but I don't expect it to be a big hit just yet with the average Redmondite.
If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, hump its leg.