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Wal-Mart's $200 Linux PC Sells Out

Posted by kdawson on from the ok-there's-a-market-for-it dept.

hankmt writes "About a week ago Wal-Mart began selling a $200 Linux machine running on a 1.5 ghz VIA C7 processor and 512 MB of RAM. While the specs are useless for Vista, it works blazingly fast on Ubuntu with the Enlightenment Window Manager. The machine is now officially sold out of their online warehouses (it may still be available in some stores). And the product sales page at wal-mart.com is full of glowing reviews from new and old Linux users alike."

33 of 619 comments (clear)

  1. What's that in bogomips by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many bogomips are we talking here...

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    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:What's that in bogomips by Josh+Booth · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine a beowulf cluster of $200 Wal-Mart PCs...

      Oh, I guess someone did.

    2. Re:What's that in bogomips by renegadesx · · Score: 2, Funny

      You should know the answer is 42!

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      Make SELinux enforcing again!
    3. Re:What's that in bogomips by nschubach · · Score: 3, Funny

      You didn't know that the Beowulf project was named after the movie?

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    4. Re:What's that in bogomips by funfail · · Score: 2, Funny

      so *I AM THE ANSWER*
      Then who is the question?
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    5. Re:What's that in bogomips by wixardy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then who is the question?

      He's on first.
    6. Re:What's that in bogomips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      whoooooosh!

  2. Walmart + Linux = ... by patio11 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... the Slashdot equivalent of strapping buttered toast to the back of a kitten and pushing it off a table. You could power a perpetual motion machine with the flames generated by this combo...

    --
    Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
    1. Re:Walmart + Linux = ... by Duhavid · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think you mean "perpetual emotion machine".

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      emt 377 emt 4
  3. More /. Cognitive Dissonance by goldspider · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wal*Mart = Bad
    Linux = Good

    *whimper*

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
    1. Re:More /. Cognitive Dissonance by renegadesx · · Score: 3, Funny

      No this is Walmart which obviously means they were assembled by legal chinese citizins working on an annual salary of $2.50, so I would be testing the case for GHB if I got one

      --
      Make SELinux enforcing again!
  4. But, by bedwards09 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does it run Windows?

  5. Must resist.... by Itninja · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...urge to support the Wal Mart beast. But Linux is good right? But wait...Wal Mart is not good. Unless, they throw me a open-source bone. Then they're good right? Damn, I hate moral dilemmas. Why can't everything Wal Mart sells, just be something I either do not want or do not need? It's almost as if they are pandering to....hey look! They have for $1.99/dozen!

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  6. look out! by pak9rabid · · Score: 2, Funny

    if this isn't chair-throwing worthy, I don't know what is.

  7. They forgot an important disclaimer! by distantbody · · Score: 2, Funny

    Unfortunately Wal-Mart have made a huge oversight, and they're gonna have quite a few disgruntled customers because of it. I mean, they forgot the "not good for pr0n" disclaimer!!!

  8. blazingly fast ... Enlightenment WM by localman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Amazing what a decade of hardware progress can do :)

  9. Re:Australia sucks by Nazlfrag · · Score: 3, Funny

    We also don't have Wal-Mart, so there's a bright side.

  10. We are not clones of our average here. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Funny

    But Linux is good right? But wait...Wal Mart is not good. Unless, they throw me a open-source bone. Then they're good right?

    The readership of Slashdot varies drastically. Attempts to use social pressure to homogenize it have failed, with great hilarity.

    Apparently you did not get the memo. B-)

    Please do not expect all of us to march in step.

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    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:We are not clones of our average here. by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Please do not expect all of us to march in step.

      Indeed, we're nerds. Don't expect any of us to march in step. If you see someone marching in step he probably doesn't belong here.

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  11. Re:Based upon the comments there ... none. by SnoopJeDi · · Score: 5, Funny

    man?

  12. Ha! by Comatose51 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I knew it! I knew Linux is going to sell out some day! I told you Linux is just as evil M$FT! Sold out to Walmart of all people.

    *RTFA*

    Oh. Good job, carry on.

    --
    EvilCON - Made Famous by /.
  13. Hah! I can image the tech support calls now by Scoldog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Customer - "Hi, I have a problem with my computer, it won't boot"

    Walmart - "What operating system do you have installed"

    Customer - "Windows Vista"

    Walmart - "I'm sorry, that PC shipped with Linux. You'll have to reinstall that before we can help you!".

    Next thing you know, they'll blame faulty hinges on Windows!

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  14. Re:How many will be returned? by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's funny how this is modded down as a troll but I'm expected that there really will be a lot of disappointed customers. Some may successfully adapt anyway, but a large proportion won't.

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  15. Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur by oatworm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right after someone invents the mod "-1, can't spell douche"

    Thank you, thank you - I'm here every night. Be sure to tip your cocktail waitress.

  16. But I'm confused. by onefriedrice · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wait... does this mean that we like Walmart now?

    Just wondering...

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    This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
    1. Re:But I'm confused. by aichpvee · · Score: 1, Funny

      No, it certainly does not. Now maybe if they were shipping Slackware or something...

      --
      The Farewell Tour II
    2. Re:But I'm confused. by hdparm · · Score: 4, Funny

      Heh. Top that with Enlightenment (which is actually shipped on these) and you get easy distro for typical Wal-Mart buyer.

      Then, for the next shipment, you cut down on setup costs and provide the machine with Gentoo minimal CD bundled.

      ?

      Profit!

  17. Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur by rucs_hack · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many AOL users even know what an OS is ??

    They know exactly what an OS is, it's the blue window that tells them they've got mail, duh..

  18. Re:Based upon the comments there ... none. by Aehgts · · Score: 2, Funny

    $ apropos man|wc -l
    255
    $ apropos woman
    woman: nothing appropriate.

    --
    "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein
  19. Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur by rts008 · · Score: 3, Funny

    That would be a little like a Mazda RX7 having a warning that this is not a Dump Truck.

    There, fixed that for you.

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    Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  20. Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    >Those are the kind of fucktard who need to be removed from the gene pool as they are too fucking stupid to even exist let alone use a computer.

    Funny, I feel the same way about people that use neologisms such as "fucktard".

  21. OMG, I'd love to see that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Wow, I'd love to see the look on the face of some slackjawed yokel when he hooks up some Lunix machine. Can you imagine how funny it's going to be when he can't even get the GUI to come up without spending a half hour trying to edit the configuration files?

    And when he wants to install software on it... hilarity ensues!

    BWAHAHAHA!!! Teh Lunix strikes again!

    1. Re:OMG, I'd love to see that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I'm a slackjawed yokel and I run linux* on my John Deere tractor, you insensitive clod!

      *my own custom distro based on Slack. I call it "Slackjaw".