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Shuttle's $200 Linux PC Part of a Trend?
eldavojohn writes "With $200 machines being all the rage these days, it's surprising that more coverage hasn't been given to Shuttle's KPC which is an Intel Celeron processor, a 945GC chipset, 512MB of memory and either a 60GB or 80GB HDD. With deals like these, will Linux become the dominant home operating system for the thrifty?"
that NASA had actually put Linux on the Space Shuttle. Darn! What a disappointment! Figures, though. NASA could never spend as low as $200 on a computer; what, when they can gold-plate the sucker and buy a computer for $200 million?
disapointing, i seen at NewEgg a few similar Shuttle BareBones kits had CD/DVD drive bays...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...but it would certainly be a good inexpensive network storage option for many folks.
Just for the record; I'm not proclaiming any great knowledge in this area.
I just wonder if the business model won't be fruitful at first and slowly fade into non-existence.
The allure of low priced PCs for the neophyte is a great one but one of two things are likely to happen: They'll either find out that they want more and end up willing to spend more and probably choose Windows for the software support or they'll find that the machine suits their purposes and latch onto them for a larger than normal span of time and repeat customers will be next to nil.
I've found that people who pinch a penny when buying hardware are normally not good business for vendors. They'll make a machine last to their dying day.
So while the initial repsonce is going to be great but don't expect to see lots of these people as return customers in the next few years.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
If you do not want to play games and all you need is office, mail, some MP3-ed music and watching an odd DVD that is more than enough.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
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Alright. I've said it OVER and OVER and OVER. And I still mean it. If you want to help Linux double it's presence in the small business sector, get a rock solid, customized, easy to use WINE installer for Quickbooks and make it compatible with new versions within 90 days.
Businesses, once they see it in action, will scoop up $250 boxes and switch because: they don't have to pay for the VM and the Windows license, they don't have to pay for yearly anti-virus subscriptions, and they don't have to deal with windows update constantly breaking and changing things.
But, I do look forward to the next version of whatever eye candy you guys are working on. Rotating xterms on a cube is really, really impressing the suits.
Well to a new computer user, Linux can be just as friendly as MacOS, or Windows. They all have equally steep learning curves.
Considering what people would want out of a $200 machine, I would say that Linux can be even more user friendly. On a bare bones machine, people don't have the expectation of being able to do 'anything' give them their large icons for a preconfigured email/web/word/musicplayer interface and that is what they will stick to.
For a $200 PC, I would prefer a linux distro. And this is coming from someone who prefers using XP for most of my computing needs.
Obligatory car analogy:
I love my pickup truck for its cargo capacity, not its gas mileage.
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With specs like those, Linux may become known as a "low quality" operating system. To the masses, at least.
/.er can spend a couple hours reconfoobling a box, Joe Consumer doesn't have that luxury - he's got bills to pay, sleep to steal, and enough grief from the rest of his life. He doesn't want to know what a goddamn compiler is, he doesn't give a shit about GPL dogma, and he couldn't care less who Stallman is - he simply wants his box to do what he expects and wants it to do.
I'll explain: Joe Consumer buys a system for $200. He realizes that he can't run his Windows apps easily/at all, that it's "different" and "difficult" from what he knows (Microsoft, again), and it's kind of slow. He'll associate Linux with incompatibility, difficulties, and piss poor performance. And he may tell his friends.
I haven't even addressed the poor schmuck trying to bring home work from the office.
The typical
Be careful what'cha ask for, ya know.
Oh, yeah: save the argument about "educating the masses". They don't care and trying to shove propaganda, dogma and excuses down their throats will only drive them further away from Linux.
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
I can imagine that many here will have a hard time seeing the utility of a device like this because it doesn't have the horsepower for gaming or 3D rendering. But I think back to how many WebTV users were in my site logs and realize that most people can get by with relatively modest hardware requirements. A 75% solution would run basic productivity software, email, chat, view pictures, play movies and run Firefox.
I'd get one for the times I don't feel like hauling a full size laptop. Many times 75% is plenty.
I think the popularity of appliance type devices in Japan may signal the market is somewhat bigger than many at Microsoft are willing to accept.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I want a red one with a yellow hammer and sickle on the side.
Hi, I don't have a computer at home to play games.
Because I'm the neighborhood geek, people ask me about their problems. One problem is what to do with the old machine when they upgrade.
My advice for the past six months has been: buy it a new hard drive ($60) and install Ubuntu. The hard drive is what fails at 4-5 years, but the rest will keep on ticking and thanks to the thriftiness of Linux, doesn't slow them down.
They don't care that it's not Windows XP or Mac OS X. All GUIs look about the same for the tasks most people do.
With these newer cheap machines, I'm excited, but wary. Would I rather install $200 of junk or do a $60 upgrade to an older, but once more expensive machine with better hardware?
The Shuttle boxes I've worked with so far have been high quality but have tended to overheat. However, they were a good deal more expensive than $200. I wonder what corners got cut, and whether a five year old Dell that cost $900 when it was new would have these problems?
Either way, my compliments to the Ubuntu team. That's a convenient and reliable OS distro.
technical writing / development
It's not a laptop. Next!
Not flamebait, but the truth. Cute little laptops have been either underpowered or the preserve of the rich till now, so Asus and everybody else knocking out workable, durable, cute machines is newsworthy. A desktop box that costs 200 dollars? where's the news in that? You can find those on every high street, and loads of people have brought out cute looking ones so nothing new there either. Plus it's not 200 dollars and press the on button, for Joe Public it's 200 dollars, spend some more on a monitor, then plug it into the wall. SO more like buying another desktop. Yawn.
But, one of the main problems to Linux adoption is the install process. Have you even seen XP's install? Its much more complex then Ubuntu's install (albeit much easier then Gentoo's). The other problem is most people don't know any other OS other than Windows. While it is true that some of these machines will be running Windows, the most will be running Linux on them because people just go with what they have.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
But this is about a Linux PC and putting Windows on it, therefore the argument with "the computer came with it" is null and void about this particual computer for Windows.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
Your average user will love this computer: it lets them spend $200, and they can just throw a pirated copy of Windows on it.
Since the $200 Shuttle doesn't come with an optical drive, I don't think the average user will be technically savvy enough to install Windows on it.
I had a small silent Pentium III 800 Mhz with only XDM and IceWM preconfigured stocked somewhere, waiting for the day it would make somebody happy.
Today was that day. My mother called that nobody could repair her expensive computer.
I took the train, placed the computer, upgraded, created an account, installed firefox and gaim and added her printer.
She was ready to do all she does with computers; browse, gmail, print, chat.
If this old computer can make her happy, I'm sure these powerful 200$ boxes can make many others happy.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
that was pp's point. That pre-installation is a hindrance to adoption of linux.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...