Walmart Expands Low-End Linux Notebook Offerings

startleman writes "A story on Tom's Hardware reports that Walmart apparently will offer a Linare-equipped notebook below the $500 mark. Manufacturer Linare said that it will bring a Linux-based device to the retailer 'within the next few days.' Specs include an AMD Athlon 1800+, a 40 GByte harddrive, 128 MByte memory, a CD-ROM drive, an Ethernet port and the firm's Linare OS as well as Open Office."

Comments

Re:fp

[ReeprFlame]

its fine, especially for a web user period. or a basic word processor. or maybe even for music...

they are still bad

[Anonymous Coward]

It still doesn't make them the good guys. I shudder to think what part of the world they are monopolizing for cheap labor...

What kind of MBA retards are in charge of the

[symbolic]

...marketing? Even on their own website, Linare says it comes with 128MB of memory, but 256MB is recommended. Would it KILL them to add another 128MB? What a turnoff.

Re:What kind of MBA retards are in charge of the

[Stevyn]

Dell did this for a while. 128 with a raging fast P4 was the norm for their advertised specs for years. I guess their marketing department was banking on the fact that a fast CPU helps when the operating system alone uses all the ram and you're into virtual memory the moment you run an application. People on Slashdot understand the need for just enough ram, but most consumers only know what Intel marketing tells them.

Re:What kind of MBA retards are in charge of the

[Albanach]

It's probably more Walmart's doing than the manufacturer. Walmart will have said "give us a laptop we can sell below the $500 price point or someone else will." So the manufacturer has to cut costs somewhere. Not that I disagree, 128MB is too little, but you gets what you pays for.

Re:What kind of MBA retards are in charge of the

[plopez]

A crafty one. Have you priced memory upgrades? At Dell they are almost twice what a little online searching can get you, same model same manufacturer.

There's money in under specing a system then overcharging for upgrades.

Warranty?

[PornMaster]

Absolutely no mention of warranty for the boxes at the Linare website. I'd be a little worried about buying a low-end unit from a foreign company, through Wal-Mart, without some kind of assurance I could get it serviced somewhere reasonably.

I worry that the money saved might be done so foolishly.

Re:Typical user?

[shumacher]

I had a friend that worked in the rent-to-own business. He was in collections, but the place was small enough that he could also find himself on the floor from time to time.

It didn't matter what the specs were. All the customers cared about was web (pr0n and music) and email, with a minority interested in chat.

These machines, running linux satisfy all the needs of this customer, provided they can come up with $500 all at once.

Re:My, the ambivalence!

[shumacher]

Wow, maybe we should have a law written that requires x86 manufacturers to assess a "Windows Tax" on each machine sold capable of running Windows, to cover the piracy.

Heck, let's do the same thing with CD-R discs and the RIAA!

Oh wait...

It's just a throw away for them

[fishlet]

I don't think Walmart is doing this for any other reason then they don't want to pay the sticker price for windows. They are not really advocating Linux, more so than just providing something so they can say it has an operating system. Sadly, for any of you who thinks this is a win for Linux... I feel most certain that most of they buyers of these machines will buy it not because of Linux but because of it's fairly low price... wipe the hard drive... and install the pirated copy of Windows they got from the kid next door.

Re:It's just a throw away for them

[cyberfunk2]

I agree with the parent. I think your average WalMart consumer isnt that in tune to Linux, and this really is just a cost cutting measure.

However, on the positive side, before Joe Redneck wipes his drive and installs his pirated copy of windows, he might think twice and just try that "new fangled linux thing", and maby, just maby, he wont install windows.

At the very least, he'll likely see that it's a decent operating system, and such a move could gain Linux some recognition and respect among the non computer literate.

P.S. I'm from the deep south, so I know that Joe Redneck and certainly much worse in the terms of computer literacy are generous descriptions of the average users' ability (at least down there).

Re:It's just a throw away for them

[Jason Earl]

Of course Wal-Mart is doing it because they don't want to pay the Microsoft tax. Wal-Mart has a long history of not going into a business until they can offer the lowest price, and Wal-Mart simply can't compete with Dell as long as Windows is part of the bargain. Remove Windows from the bargain, however, and all of a sudden Wal-Mart is a serious contender.

Heck, I know that I am interested. A low end Linux-compatible laptop is exactly what I want. Now I won't have to buy something that's been used. Personally I am glad to see Wal-Mart stepping up to the plate to make me the offer.

Lots of people want to be able to buy hardware without paying for software. Many of them already have a Windows license. Purchasing a computer with Linux pre-installed is about the only way there is to get a new computer without paying the Microsoft tax.

Sure, these laptops will almost certainly promote software piracy, but that's hardly Wal-Mart's problem.

Re:It's just a throw away for them

[Webmonger]

I don't think Walmart is doing this for any other reason then they don't want to pay the sticker price for windows. They are not really advocating Linux...

I think that's cool. If big, evil corporations are using Linux because it fills a need, not from an advocacy position, Linux is really gaining momentum.

Not many people buy Windows because of advocacy.

Re:It's just a throw away for them

[mboverload]

Like they will even notice. I just talked to a lady that didn't know what the start button was. She could be using NetBSD for all she knows.

Re:It's just a throw away for them

[arodland]

That was valid 10 years ago. Now we've got "people use windows because they've been using windows for the past 10 years"

Re:My, the ambivalence!

[Duncan3]

Hey, I'm PROUD to wear a $6 t-shirt made by slave labor in China...

Oh wait, I'm NOT, but every other sotre is out of business now...

Um, it's still $500 dollars

[rsilvergun]

I dig on Linux and all (got Slack 10 running right now), but I figured out early on that the Microsoft tax isn't that big a deal to the OEMs. Plus, and OEM has the luxury of punting their problems customers to Microsoft tech support (which is by far the biggest reason you're not gonna see Dell pushing Linux on the desktop for the masses anytime soon). The problem here is I can get a much better (numbers wise, I won't argue reality) notebook from Dell for ~$200 more. Call me when it's $300, maybe $350.

You're right about that...

[gotr00t]

One of the reasons why I use KDE on Linux on my notebook (and for that matter, all computers that I regularly use) is the configurability of the desktop environment. Almost every aspect of KDE can be tuned to my exact specification (I'm sure that this is true for gnome, fluxbox, etc. etc. etc. as well), but this is not true for Windows or OSX.

I initially thought that it didn't look so bad, but then it became painfully obvious it was just trying to be like Windows, down to the logoff/shutdown/restart screen. When I scrolled down and saw that in the place of the start menu was a hideous looking button labeled "explore" I had just about enough. Just about every desktop environment for *nix has good traits. It is almost an insult to the developers to theme it like a "me-too" windows clone.

Returns, returns

[NineNine]

By looking at this thing, I'm guessing that 75% of the people buying this will return it once they use it and realize that it isn't Windows. It looks very much like Windows, plus most people who shop at Wal-Mart wouldn't know the difference.

Re:My, the ambivalence!

[The-Perl-CD-Bookshel]

Wal-Mart is also responsible for lowering retail prices by 10% since 1978. In turn, raising your real income by countering inflation. Don't shop there if you don't want to, but they are why you get good prices wherever you shop now.

Re:Put it in the store!

[shumacher]

This is, of course, a valid concern. I think this might be a place where the variety of distros can help Linux as a whole. These less sophisticated computer users will think of Linare as cheap. That is, assuming they think of the operating system as a different thing from the computer itself. If not, they will think of the computer brand as cheap. Remember that many of these less savvy users think their computer has four parts: Screen, keyboard, mouse, hard drive.

Re:This is a great step, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Lin-curious" is one of the gayest computer expressions I have ever heard.

I am all for open source, but any one who is "Lin-curious" or interested in people who are should not be left alone around small children.

Re:Typical user?

[Tough Love]

My best guess is that the hardware is basic enough that they can probably install Win98 on it with very little trouble. This is a computer for software license violaters, in that case.

Why would you do that if it's working perfectly well with Linux? Let alone not being a spyware magnet.

How insulting!

[Anonymous Coward]

The raw well-lubed power of MS OEM dominance will finally be pitted against a hypnotically deteriorative superpower capable of harnessing the buying power of the worlds lowest common denominator.

Just because they're dumb as boards, think Jesus is looking through their rooftops, favor TV shows about eating live worms, and buy and vote themselves into a lower economic class is no reason to condescend to them!

Re:My, the ambivalence!

[DarkVader]

I'm not sure how you get incompetence...

They've got the rest of it, but they seem to be pretty competent at it.

Re:Can you put your own linux on these?

[mark_lybarger]

can you please point out an example of such machine? i've never heard of such a monster, not that it doesn't exist. outside of ati and nvidia providing binary drivers for their video chips i haven't seen much binary only drivers for linux.

even ndiswrapper uses windows binary drivers which are easily available and usable.

Re:Typical user?

[Lord Byron II]

I'm going to buy one for my g/f. She wants a laptop to simply type papers on, so this is perfect for her. This isn't a computer for "software license violaters", it's a computer for those who want to do simple tasks on their laptop (web/email/chatting/writing), but don't want to pay the M$ tax.

Re:Walmart News Gives Me A Headache.

[DaLMuTi23]

Agreed. I wouldn't buy this POS if it cost $1. Walmart sucks, can't be trusted and lies to consumers. It's more like "Buy Sweatshop"

Re:Enough power for some

[iamwahoo2]

Unless your doing something like game development, I think exactly the opposite is true. I do all my work on my laptop because it is convenient to carry it anywhere in my house and with me on trips. If anything, I wish my notebook were smaller and lighter.

Re:Enough power for some

[b17bmbr]

the difference is between a crappy $500 dollar laptop and a much better one even if it's two years old. a crappy laptop always will be crappy, while an older, once top of the line laptop will have a better screen, keyboard, etc. i'll take that for development any day of the week

Re:MegaB GByte

[Cheeze]

"...capital B assumed to b byte..."

assume = ass + u + me

You wouldn't believe how hard it is for some people to realize that the capitalization changes it by a factor of 8.

What would happen if they advertised it to have 128Mb of ram, and it actually had 128Mbits. They wouldn't be lying, but they'd be in trouble.