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Walmart Offers Sub-$500 laptop With Linspire
LehiNephi writes "Cnet reports that Walmart is offering a sub-$500 notebook running Linspire. The specs are less-than impressive: a 1GHz VIA C3 processor, 128 MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, and a plain vanilla CD-ROM. Seems overpriced for what you get, but cheap nonetheless. And yes, it does run Linux."
... you must be unfamiliar with Wal-Mart.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
It DOES run linux?
Well, I think this is the reason there are no posts. ^_^
So, is this kinda thing gonna shoot us in the foot, and make Linux mean cheap in the public eye? And I mean cheap, NOT inexpensive.
But can it run Windows?
Not a bad value for those of us who do low-intensity work like back-end web development and don't have huge libraries of MP3s.
"and a plain vanilla CD-ROM" Wow! Both plain AND vanilla! Walmart to the T!
"You know Myra, some people might think you're cute. But me, I think you're one very large baked potato."
I wonder if they include a disclamer for Linspire... a big red "DOES NOT INCLUDE MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP" on the box somewhere.
I'd almost wager that 80% of the people who buy these (or who buy a computer from WalMart in general) are n00bs, and will try returning the devices because 'there's no microsoft word or internet explorer on it'.
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
WalMart is both the symbol and actualization of what is wrong with the USA. Remeber how much you love WalMart when that's the only job available to you, and the wages from your WalMart job are so low you can only afford to shop at WalMart.
Warts? They are more like sucking chest wounds.
Anyone who shops at WalMart is party to the destruction of the american middle class, the 40 hour work week, and employer paid health care.
Please send all UCE to scally@devolution.com so I can f
Seriously, I feel bad for whoever is putting these together for WalMart. They just got a hugenormous client (WalMart) who will be both the best and worst thing that ever happened to them.
Where I work we split our time between trying to provide excellent service to our non-WalMart customers while keeping WalMart happy because they account for such a huge chunk of our revenue it's not even funny. And that's pretty normal for any company WalMart does business with.
This has a faster processor, bigger disk and more RAM than a standard PC from three years ago; what applications have turned up since then that require more than this?
Did anyone else notice that it says "DVD" on it?
Keep in mind this is a notebook, and not a desktop. One for that price really isn't too bad, and would be excellent for someone doing basic computer usage. The biggest issue I see is that it is not windows. That's no big deal, however it can be for those who are not tech savy. With the draconian return policies of software, I can see unsavy users buying software thinking it will run, and finding out they can't.
I don't know about the author, but I remember the days when twin pentium 90's and 128 Megs of RAM were considered awesome....
That was about 10 years ago.
Sure, this thing isn't going to be a screaming game machine, but honestly, how much horsepower do you need for text editing, email, and some casual browsing, anyway?
Damn Small Linux, blackbox, and bluetooth, and I think I just found my next remote webserver admin tool. I can't justify $2k for a machine, but less than $600 (tax, etc) might make it really feasable.
What I'm looking for is a cheap as possible laptop that has an nvidia video chipset, and no windows tax. I want to atleast be able to play UT2k4 on it.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
As South Park so eloquently pointed out... :)
Seems someone has been watching a bit too much South Park.
*Referring to South Park Episode # 8-09*
Here Here!!! I would love to be party of killing employer paid health care... and government health care... if we did, maybe there would be wal-marts selling insurance and health care.
Some people have no friggin concept of the economy and capitalism whatsoever. As if the great founders of America implanted a economic system based around freedoms and capitalism... but they had NO IDEA there would be someplace like Wal-Mart!!! I mean... we just can't compete!!!
Complete ignorance. People like you put us on the fast-track to protectionism and an isolated economy just so we can give the high-school dropout and union job with full benefits and garuanteed pay raises every year. Nevermind the complete loss of any motivation to outperform your peers and better yourself.
a 1GHz VIA C3 processor, 128 MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, and a plain vanilla CD-ROM. Seems overpriced for what you get, but cheap nonetheless.
I can't speak for the US market, but up here in Canada the cheapest new laptop runs you about $1,000, which is about $800 USD. Granted, this is with a 2+ ghz cpu, 256 MB RAM, 20-30GB drive and a dvd-rom.
However, to pay anything less than this requires checking out the used laptop market. Here we see such gems as a P3-700, 64-96MB RAM, 8-10GB drive selling for $5-600 all the time. Say about $4-500 USD.
I don't know about you folks, but this looks like a pretty nice deal for those folks who aren't planning on running Doom3 on their laptops. The ram's a bit scanty for any modern OS, but otherwise this is a perfectly good machine to do 99% of what people do with a laptop.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
The problem with Linspire (Lindows) is that it isn't quite Linux (yes, I know it really is Linux) and it isn't quite Windows. So, end-users might find it difficult. Even a pro seemed to think it was hard to use.
Can a Red Hat Guru Survive on a Lindows Laptop?
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
[I posted this elsewhere, but it's relevant here too.]
This is a bad choice. I have a C3 933Mhz processor. It performs roughly equivalent to a 300Mhz PIII. Not only this, but it is extremely hot. The C3 was supposed to be cool, but this is one of the hottest laptops I've used. I haven't objectively measured it with a thermistor yet, but the external temp seems about 55 C to 60 C. If I put the laptop on my bare chest it leaves red marks. It may be because the laptop is so thin, or maybe the HSF construction is shoddy.
The PIII/M is cool, and embarrasses the C3 in terms of performance. This is partly due to C3 being a bad processor, but also largely due to PIII/M being a good processor. In fact, if I was getting an x86 notebook, I wouldn't accept anything except a PIII. I've personally experienced Athlon notebooks, P4 notebooks, and VIA notebooks, and can tell that they are all inferior. I can't speak to Transmeta or Apple branded notebooks.
If this C3 notebook is at all appealing to you, my advice is to get an old PIII off ebay or reburbished from one of many dealers. You'll pay the same price and get a much higher performing, cooler laptop.
It is because neither cares if they have friends. They have customers. To a company, customers are infinitely more important than friends.
Where have you been shopping?
Pricewatch is your friend!
Along with GotApex
And my cheezy webpage
2GHz C3 Board: $78
15" Monitor: $92
Complete sys - AMD Athlon 3200+ No OS 128MB 20GB CDROM Integrated VGA & Audio KB/MS: $166
If you're buying a computer from Wal-Mart odds are you do not know how to install windows. You probably don't even know how to turn the thing on. You probabably do know how to skin a deer, and you probably own a t-shirt that says "Who Farted?"
1.1 GHz Mobile AMD Athlon 4 processor
14.1" XGA TFT LCD screen
40 GB hard drive
128 MB RAM
DVD-ROM drive
Integrated 802.11b wireless networking
1.) It is cheap- under $500. This is rare. 2.) It runs Linux. Yes, believe it or not, this site does lean towards OSS and *NIX.
Bored? Why not join a decent mess
The previous Linux/Walmart boxes were never available at the walmart stores, only at walmart.com. While the CNET article doesn't say that it won't be sold in stores, it starts out with with "Walmart.com and Linspire revealed.." and ends with "the computer is available at walmart.com". No mention that it would be available at stores.
My guess is people who buy computers online are somewhat more savy than those who buy at Wal-Mart stores.
I have blog like everyone else
Who do you bank with troll, "1st Bank of Joe and Billy-Bob"? My bank has worked properly with Mozilla-based browsers for nearly five years now, and before that only had visual rendering issues except for a brief time after a botched redesign. Tell 'em to get with the program and fix their website so that it conforms to real standards. If they are unresponsive, vote with your dollars and your feet and trot on over to...well...almost any other bank.
Of course, you could explore other options:
* shell out extra $ for a copy of WinXP or a machine with it pre-installed
* break the law and put a cracked or pirated Windows on your machine
* stick to physically visiting your branch, ATMs and telephone banking
Agree 100%. The people I went to high school with never went to college, because the union would get them US$40K a year jobs with full benefits right after high school. They scoffed at college.
Now (25 years later) we are finding that we (the US) have overpriced our labor to the point were we are non-competitive in any basic industries. Now my former classmates are unemployed, or on strike for years at a time, and up a creek. The slightly more enlightened among them are at a community college trying to make up for lost time.
Wal*Mart charges a low price and pays a low rate. Don't like it, go to school and get a job doing something other than stocking shelves. No other jobs in Podunk other than Wal*Mart? Move.
Grow up, people. Wal*Mart only controls the job supply if you let it. Train yourself for something other than stocking shelves or waving UPC's over scanners. Especially since we're automating that function, too.
Please watch the stereotypes. I shop Walmart. I also went to private schools until grad school, where I got my Ph.D. in Statistics. I don't hunt, although I do ski and scuba dive. I also employ programmers for things I design.
Nevertheless, the term is correct. Mathematics = maths. It's called British English, get used to it.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
I know it's Linspire, but still the average user doesn't know to configure their digital camera with linux, or recompile the kernel.
The average user will, most likely, never have to recompile the kernel. As for the digital camera, that's a problem for the camera manufacturer to solve. Wal-mart can put enough preasure (if they want) on manufacturer to include software for Linspire.
I figure wal-mart supporting linux (in its own greedy way) just may be a good thing.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Which version of the C3 does this notebook use?
Notebooks based the C3 come in two flavors: Ezra and Nehemiah. The Nehemiah at 1 GHz is almost twice as fast as the Ezra at 1 GHz.
The tip-off would be the chipset, if it was known. The Nehemiah is almost always used with the CLE266 chipset with a 266 MHz FSB.
You must really be young.
It reminds me of West Virginia coal mines of the 1920's and 30's and their company-owned towns. Your monthly wages never exceeded your monthly costs for rent, food, clothes and your kids 'education' in the company owned and run stores and schools, so you we always in debt to the company.
People originally flocked to Walmart because the low prices allowed them to keep more of their income from their middle class jobs and spend it on other things besides food and clothes. But, as Walmart drove the middle class jobs out of town, many found that they could no longer afford to shop any place else.
Now that most of the Walmart merchandise has "Made in China" labels on it, Americans have completed the task of sending their remaining jobs and income overseas and in doing so are funding a Marxist dictatorship bent on our own destruction. America, truly a "company store" again. Add to that the fact we that sending what money we have left to Mid-Eastern Oil producing states so we can drive SUV that get 12 mpg and proof of our insanity is complete.
Pr0n, booze, drugs and Walmart. What a sad commentary.
The parent AC must think all laptops are 'thinkpads'. Hell, it worked for kleenex -- why not IBM?
Required reading for internet skeptics
Because when I first saw the price and specs on the thing the first notion that popped into my head was trying one of them and putting ubuntu on it.
Then I saw the other machine that has an "Athlon 4" CPU in it (whatever that is) for fifty bucks more and comes with built-in wireless networking. "Oh boy," I thought, and headed over there to check that one out. And of course, the one that has wireless networking comes with XP.
Gonna be real easy "taking over the desktop market" when you can't even get installed in a machine with wireless networking support...
a pity to post this as an A,C,. because it deserves to be modded up.
- Anyone who shops at WalMart is party to the destruction of the american middle class, the 40 hour work week, and employer paid health care.
You just earned yourself a fan. My wife still shops at WalMart and will occasionally drag me along. The few times a year I'm in there just reminds me how much I hate WalMart.And don't forget, not only are they leading the destruction of the middle class, they are also responsible for generating about $1000 in annual revenue for every US citizen. They have the power to do what they want in any market segment they turn their crushing retail powers towards.
Note I didn't say they had the power to be the best in any market segment they turn their attention towards; they just have enough resources (i.e. CASH) they can crush all the quality vendors until there is no other practical choice but WalMart.
The American people let the legislators pull the wool over their eyes by allowing absurd jury awards, shuffling personal responsibility off to the nearest set of (presumably) deep-pocket targets, and otherwise fostering the stupidity du jour. So mostly, I think they get what they deserve. Eventually, maybe they'll get up off their lazy asses and force the legislature to behave responsibly. I try, and I get a lot more done than you'd think since I can use $$$ as a lever, but it's not enough. The insurance companies and the lawyers have more.
I'm a business owner. I pay for healthcare for all my employees. They get a full ride -- dental, eyes, health and life. You don't even want to know what it costs me. The only good news is I can still afford to do it. In about five years, if things keep going as they are, I'll be forced to raise our software prices, because there won't be any margin remaining to cover it. And that's for a product that technically has paid back our investment in it; originally, it was $499, and these days we sell the same thing, plus tons of upgrades done in the meantime, for $50 -- we're that far down the curve. It absolutely sickens me that the curve is reversing because of lawyers and other parasites.
Gah. I hate this subject.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Because we all know that societies that forbid competition thrive far more than capitalist ones. After all, thats the real reason that capitalist societies are in the shitter, especially in technological areas. and quality of life. right?
Healthy and fair competition is the best thing for society, in nearly every arena.
No, he isn't the only one. Look here:
http://www.webservertalk.com/message444851-1.html
Though, I'm not sure you can blame this one on Wal-Mart. It isn't like it is a Wal-Mart brand named computer. They are buying it, just like all their other products, from a third-party manufacturer. Now, they may have a lot of muscle to lean in on that third-party, but ultimately it's a cheap knock-off being shipped in directly from Asia vs. the quality knock-offs with things like the IBM badge on them being shipped in directly from Asia.
"Genius may shine aloof and alone, like a star, but goodness is social, and it takes two men and God to make a Brother."
If this post is regarded as "insightful", I must say that the moderators need to learn some economics. Do you think that WalMart pays less than Goldman Sachs because the big shots at Goldman Sachs are kind and generous people? If certain WalMart employees don't earn that much, it's because no other employer is bidding more for their skills. That's what their labor is worth on the free market. WalMart is a great benefactor of the lower and middle classes, because it expands their purchasing power. If you think WalMart is mean, try starting a small business, hiring away WalMart employees at higher wages, and making a profit. THEN you have to right to bash WalMart. Talk is cheap.
Or what about installing IE with Wine?
This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
Have you checked the breakdown of the precent of malpractice insurance that goes to lawyers, against the amount the insurance companies merely pocket? People get mad at the doctors, and get mad at the lawyers (I mostly avoid dealings with both myself), but how do the insurance firms avoid anyone noticing how incredibly much money goes to them - not just for malpractice, but for medical insurance itself. If you eliminated the insurance companies from the racket, it would cut something like 30% off our medical costs.
As for the suits against doctors, the majority of suits are against just a few doctors in any state. The states where the medical association actually disciplines doctors they get complaints against end up with much lower malpractice insurance, because there's less malpractice, because in medicine as in most professions it's about 10% of the people who make 90% of the screwups. So what malpractice insurance gives doctors is the freedom from having to discipline their own. Start yanking licenses from the idiots, and the problem goes away. But of course the insurance firms don't want the problem to go away. They make money coming (medical insurance) and going (malpractice insurance).
It's a protection racket.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Not only that, but Walmart also contributes a lot to Republicans, who in turn are actively pursuing the destruction of the american middle class, the 40 hour work week, and employer paid health care, as you said.
Why shop at stores that contribute to the destruction of the American way of life? Check out buyblue.org and choosetheblue.com and shop accordingly...
No, you will forget that we will still have the choice to work at mcdonalds or blockbuster, the other 2 predatory corporations that all share the same business plan. Move into small towns, destroy the economy, remove jobs, and basically take over any type of industry that might have existed in the past.
Yes you can save money, but their is allways a price, be it quality, ethics, or price.
Personally My ethics are not so cheap as to be willing to give them away so easily to save a few bucks.
TruePunk | Games
I agree. However, the insurance companies can only do what they do because the chain of responsibility that turns the legislators into power brokers for the insurance companies enables them to.
I see the chain of responsibility in this order:
The insurance companies have what amounts to a license to mint money. The legislators gave it to them.
The lawyers also have a license to mint money, and the legislators gave it to them as well.
The political parties only produce candidates that will toe the line and produce pork.
The people give the political parties the the power to do this, and they have not moved to take it away.
The legislature has in turn very carefully made it very difficult (with the single exception of California as far as I know) for the people to have any power whatsoever in changing how the system works. They do this by distracting the gullible majority with bullshit issues like drugs and "obscenity" and useless, unproductive wars in third-world countries, while they avoid dealing with healthcare and tort reform as if it was the plague. And of course, to them, it is the plague, because of the level of political pork that arises from the back room intercourse they engage in with the insurance industry. Screw that up, and they could lose income and the cushy job. And they know it.
The tea went into Boston harbor for far less reason than all of this adds up to. American citizens are the ones bending over; so who can really blame the legislature if they go for a quick sample of ass? Stand up for yourself, vote the incumbents out of office -- no matter who they are -- next time around and send a coherent message. Or don't, and pay through the nose for your healthcare.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
But it goes deeper than this for the medical care consumer. Liability is applied at many levels, when you're talking about surgery. All of these fine folks have to carry liability:
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't mind paying for top notch healthcare, the tools to implement it, and the facilities to perform it in. But I sure as hell mind paying for for a zillion dollar award because someone left a sponge in, or because some dipstick handed out the wrong meds. And that's what insurance is. It is us, paying for them.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Sorry to sound like a wet blanket, but there have been past stories about how walmart pressurizes it's suppliers to lower costs to the point of even bankrupting them. So, what I'm wondering is, who is it this time? Sure, it's great to have a laptop for less than $500, but hey, is some poor guy suffering to provide this pricing? or not? Anyone?
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.