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."

Comments

Panakeia?

[ahamos]

What the hell is a panakeia? What's wrong with using a spell-checker? PANACEA PANACEA PANACEA And while I'm on the subject, there is no "a" in "definite" or "definitely".

I hate making flame-bait, but dammit, we're supposed to be the intellectual frontiersmen, here.

Re:Not what i got....

[bcrowell]

I'm writing this on a similar machine from Fry's. It's a generic PC made by a Chinese company called Great Quality, has a VIA Samuel CPU, 20 Gb disk. I actually like the CPU, because it's low power, so I can leave the machine on 24/7 without wasting too much energy. Came with something called ThizLinux, but I'm currently running FreeBSD. The only real problem I've had is that of the two boxes I bought from them, one didn't come with enough documentation for me to figure out how to get sound working. The modem is a Winmodem, which ThizLinux has drivers for, but I just replaced it with an external modem. The hardware seems rock-solid so far. I have one box I bought 12 months ago, and another I bought just recently. Neither has given me any problems.

One possible advantage of these over WalMart PCs is that AFAIK you can only buy the WalMart boxes via mail order, whereas if you have a Fry's nearby, you can buy one of these and avoid paying for shipping.

Speed hasn't been a problem for me at all, as long as I pick and choose which software to run. I use KDE instead of GNOME, because Nautilus was so slow on the version of GNOME that I tried. I also use xterm instead of konsole, because konsole has an annoyingly slow startup time. Yeah, Mozilla takes a long time to start up, but it's only the same amount of time that it takes for the modem to dial, so who cares? It's not the ultimate game machine, of course. Frozen Bubbles and LTris are fine, but Mame runs pretty slow.