Steve Ballmer's $100 PC, Sans Windows

Martin_Flory writes "SolarPC has announced the $100 personal computer. Steve Ballmer's idea for reducing piracy was great after all, since this computer runs on Linux (DSL Distro). 'The design and construction of the SolarLite is consistent with the goal of an environmentally friendly computer. It uses a lightweight, recyclable, aluminum case that has a 20-year warranty. Its VIA chipset based "long-life" motherboard is a "green" lead free product. Like all SolarPC computers, the SolarLite operates on 12 volt DC power and can be run from a solar panel, car battery, or human powered (with a bicycle-based generator). The cool and quiet SolarLite uses approximately 10 watts of energy, just a fraction of what a standard PC consumes.' Sounds amazing right? This could change education all around the globe... a new Information Era is coming, and everyone is invited." The site claims they'll be available next month (minimum order 100,000 units), and promises a demo at SCALE 2005.

Comments

Re:am I just behind on the times?

[peragrin]

No It's a really bad joke on Ballmer.

A few weeks ago Ballmer made the annoucement he wanted $100 PC's for the 3rd world countries. He of course wanted them to run windows.

the joke is that the reason you can't have a $100 pc running windows, is because you need to spend $50 on just Windows. Hardware guys are already running at 1-3% profit per machine, Unlike say MSFT windows and office which are running at somewhere around 400% profit per license sold.

What Ballmer fails to realize is that people will balance that equation out. Both sides should be no higher than 30% Guess who will suffer more?

Re:Minimum order, 100,000?

[Junior J. Junior III]

My point was, if it's $100, minimum order 100,000, then obviously $100 is not going to be the retail price of this machine. Once it goes through distribution and goes to retail outlets, it'll probably double in price.

I also just see a box on their website's illustrations. I don't think $100 includes the cost of the monitor or the keyboard/mouse. So by the time you're done buying those "optional" items and can actually USE the computer, you're looking at maybe $400. Which is the cost of a low end Dell shitbox, which almost certainly has better specs. So I don't see that we've actually gained anything.

Re:solid-state?

[bcrowell]

Yeah, it's not so incredibly surprising that they can sell a PC for $100 if they leave out the power supply and the hard drive, and if $100 is the wholesale price in quantities of 100,000.

I've been buying Great Quality brand PCs from Fry's, and have been very happy with them. The retail price normally runs from $180 to $220, and it includes a hard drive and a power supply. Yesterday, as a day-after-Thanksgiving promo, they were selling them for $99. I almost went down there to get in line before dawn and snap one up, but my wife said lots of unreasonable things like, "You don't need another computer," and "What's wrong with the computer you have now?"