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Google PC to Hit Walmart?
Fahrvergnuugen writes "According to latimes.com Google is set to launch the Google PC which will run Google's own operating system. From the article: 'Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap -- perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.'"
This is a piece of speculation that's inside a piece of gossip that's inside a bloody "Predictions for 2006" article.
Which isn't to say that it can't be true. But it feels like someone heard the phrase "Google OS" and made up a rumor without knowing what the phrase meant.
The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
Really, a Windows licence isn't the major part of the cost of a new PC. So just using their own OS (with all the development costs) isn't going to save a huge amount of money per unit sold.
This Slashdot summery makes it sound like this is a sure thing. It is only a rumor at this point. Here is a quote from the article
"Here are some predictions for the media industry for 2006, based on interviews with industry analysts, executives and investors, along with a little intuition."
Google just needs to tweak a common free OS to be friendly to all their little sub-projects, in a manner similar to but more extensive than how Opera (the browser) now defaults to Google search. Even that will panic the drones at Microsoft, who are paranoid about Google anyway.
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
The google pc MUST come with an "I'm Feeling Lucky" button somewhere on the keyboard or I'm not getting one.
liqbase
I'm not so sure about the name 'GooOS' that people are chosing to use. The domain GOOOS.COM is registerd to whoisprivacyprotect.com (a subsidiary of Enom), but the CC domains like gooos.co.uk are not yet registered (which seems like a bit of a mistake if thats the name google intend (read:speculation) to use.)
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
What OS will it run? GNU of course! - Google's Not Unix.
Microsoft is so evil for branching into pretty much everything, yet Google appears to be following suit.
Can't help but feed the trolls this morning!
Microsoft are not considedered evil for branching into other areas of business. They're evil because they illegally utilized their dominance in one area to extend their business into other areas, stifling competition and therefore harming consumers.
Tell me how Google are illegally utilizing their dominance in search to extend into other areas? Tell me how Google have stifled competition.
Until them I don't see them 'following' MS at all.
My pics.
The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap -- perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.'"
Um, has anybody else ever seen a PC? They already sell for as little as a couple of hundred dollars.
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
I thought their motto was "Do no evil"?
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There is inferior bacteria on the interior of your posterior.
You must be new. Here are the basic rules of Slashdot.
1. We hate Microsoft. Anything they do is wrong. Bill Gates is stupid. Anything they do is evil.
2. We like Apple. Steve Jobs walks on water. Even when they do the same thing as Microsoft, its okay because its Apple.
3. We like Google. We think they're cool. Even when they do the same thing as Microsoft, its okay because they run Linux on most of their machines.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
This is goofball Googlemania nonsense. There are serious copyright hurdles to this idea - just as legislation in this arena becomes ever more restrictive - to name but the first problem that presents itself on first blush. Also, the second someone buys their $199 Wal*Mart, 'Google PC' and it does not run their 4-year-old daughter's "Blue's Clues" and "Dora" CD-ROMs, it goes back - just like the LinSpire boxes did.
There are more people in MS who are under the spell of Google, than even these 'analysts': Look at Robert Scoble and Dare Obasanjo - tho' the latter seems to actually understand market sense. These ideas float out, with a hope of provoking an MS response that ends up diffusing effort.
Remember, Bear-Stearns and other investment analysts were the most gullible of the participants in dot-com hype. I was a "fly on the wall" in analyst's calls at Bear Stearns, at Reynolds and at Deloitte. They all smoked the same crack that MCI was pushing about 'Net expansion.
At investment and professional services firms, you have a crew of youngsters who cut their professional teeth on the Internet bubble. This is the baseline for their experience. They are now all out to find the next big thing - and they hope it's Google. Like Yahoo in '97, with profitability as the latest 'secret sauce'.
From monitoring this thread, you would think that Google posed as serious a challenge to Microsoft as AMD does to Intel in the microprocessor market.
It's B.S. Google is good at what they do and are looking to create the kind of continuing growth that justifies the absurd valuation the analysts have bestowed upon them. The only real concern for Microsoft is that the natural area for Google's expansion is a segment that we have also identified for growth.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I, personally doubt it.
Would they buy a GoogleBox, that allows them to access their web mail, google office (assuming its not a myth) and various web sites "without a computer", and all they have to do is hook it up to a DSL/Cable line and a power line? I think they would.
My sister is terrified of computers. Her husband finally bought one and within a day they were swamped with the usual microsoft web experience (malware and viruses). All they want their computer for is email, online banking, storing digital photos and getting cheap flights. They don't word process, because neither of them do any work at home (nurse/buyer). Now they have a 64bit Athalon gathering dust in the corner of their office (i didn't recommend it... i know its a waste).
A GoogleBox could really solve their problems, and $200 is a good price point. To really take off it needs to:
Basically, think PDA but without PIM, and make it abundantly clear that this thing lives on the coffee table/kitchen sideboard, not in the brief case, on the train/plane or in the office so that the dim witts at PC World don't start comparing it PDAs/Laptops. If its going to be compared to anything it should be web service built into some cable set-top boxes and look terrible at NTSC resolutions. There could really be a market.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
They won't make a clippy. We've already got slashdot members providing questions nobody wants answered, then answering them incorrectly.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Actually, as poor a description as "moving videos between a PC and a TV set" is, it is actually a great idea for something like this. Nobody is ever going to be able to market a PC with a non-windows OS for the reason you mentioned - (almost) everything on the market requires Windows. However, by offering what is essentially a fully-functioning PC with say, Linux, but not positioning it as a PC, it would better have the ability to get into people's homes.
By not positioning it as a replacement for a Windows PC, but as an additional accessory, it doesn't have to replace every esoteric piece of software available for Windows. However, if these devices become popular for their own specific "purpose", and have the ability to duplicate at least a large portion of the functionality of a Windows PC, the apps will fall into place as people demand them.
I think an important part of this equation is HDTV. The display's ability to offer a reasonably useful "computer" interface simply wasn't available with NTSC. Now, a box connected to an HDTV display, with a one piece wireless keyboard/trackball interface, could be a lot more palatable to people, than say the old WebTV.
Hopefully they won't screw it up like everyone else has.
Well, so much for "Don't be evil".
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I like the additional accessory angle. That could acutally work if a Google PC can target and overcome the weaknesses in the current iterations of Windows. XP Media Center is nice, but it's only been around for a year or two. People are holding onto machines a lot longer than they used to. Also, Media Center is usually only available on upper tier units. If Google can put a $200 PC out there that's good at DVR functions, can play videos from different sources, and can do some general PC functions, it could be a viable system. Especially if it played nice with the other computer at home by way of file sharing.
Go into a Walmart, they have normally priced desktop computers there (500-700$, usually HP's) and laptops similarly slightly higher. They also have TVs that cost more than that, and they sell them,too. Go out in the parking lot and look at the cars there, it's not all 15 year old junkers. You might have a biased viewpoint about who shops at walmart. At my local one, one of the few places that have computers around here (rural area), you can see everything from 45,000$ pickups in the lot to Priuses the the latest high end Japanese rice rockets like Lexuses and Infinitys.
I think you have a case of urban elitism. while you weren't looking, computers have gone mainstream, because they just aren't that hard to deal with, either operating them or building them. it's a ho-hum skill now as in nothing special. Walmart even sells some upgrade parts on the shelf, meaning that people are savvy enough to open the box and replace components. Oh and Noes, being a computer user means you don't have to be a white collar urban dweller any longer.
This is 2006, not 1986 after all. Being a computer user by itself is no longer automatically leet, it's become as common as can be. It's a normal human endeavor, walmart sells whatever sells, that's all. Just because you (anyone you, just generally speasking) might shop at an all electronic store does not make you any more intelligent or capable that someone who shops at a walmart. You go where the deals are in todays world, end of story. I personally don't like walmart from a socio/economic model, but I won't deny that they carry a wide range of products at various pricing levels, and cater to most of the consumer population out there. Probably over 90% of people who shop will hit a walmart at least once in awhile, street people to millionaires.
Would you please quit it with throwing 1984 references everywhere? This is a discussion about getting non-Microsoft PCs into the home (and if anything's good for freedom, it's that) - not about tracking anything. This isn't going to make anything wiretappable that wasn't wiretappable before. If you haven't noticed, your cable box is two-way, so if they want they can track what you're viewing. And if the US wanted, they could rootkit your computer. What does connecting the computer and the TV allow them to tap (of any relevance - not like they need to tap someone's TV to get the Lord of the Rings movies for free)? All your personal info is on your computer.
Winston Smith's TV was worrisome because it contained a camera - an active monitoring device - as opposed to a wiretap - a passive monitoring device, which only forwards what goes through the wire. This doesn't contain a camera, and there's no logic in saying it couldn't be turned off.
Would you hold back technology in the worry it could be used for evil ends? Everything can be perverted. Even the clubs that the cavemen used, the first tools in human society, could have been used to kill other humans.
You should be glad you weren't around to say "zomg Big Brother!" when DARPA was proposing the Internet. Because today, you're posting on it, even though your posts are being tracked.
This is why I left /. for digg.
Yet here you are...
Gee, where have you been? "Win$hit" is perfectly acceptable - google says so. 48,100,000 hits for "Win$hit".
Or you can http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&wo rd1=win%24hit&word2=winblows googlefight
That's several hundred to 1 in favour of Win$hit.
It's not a bug - its a feature :-)