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The Answer to iMac Envy: NEC's Z1

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-hack-on dept.

Unit3 writes "Finally a real competitor to the iMac from a Wintel manufacturer: NEC's Z1 appears to not only outpower the iMac, but includes some very nice design and expandbility ideas that most of the iMac ripoffs these days are missing. " At $2500 I'm not quite sure that its an iMac competitor, but it has several other features that are quite tasty. Course it has to run Linux... I still think I'd prefer a VAIO.

3 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. Don't forget by IntlHarvester · · Score: 3


    "NEC" is just another word for "Packard Bell", at least in the USA.

    In my experience their stuff has to be near the bottom in terms of product quality. And their computer is a 20th Anniversary Macintosh ripoff (Which itself is a ripoff of a Bose? CD player).
    --

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    Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
  2. Most likely all four ports are connected by timur · · Score: 3
    On the iMac, the two USB ports are connected. I would assume the same is true on this computer. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Windows 98 didn't support multiple USB adapters.

    In other words, all your doing is sharing the bandwith among four ports instead of two. It still helps in reducing the need for a hub, but that's it.

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    Timur Tabi
    Remove "nospam_" from email address

  3. Re:iMacs cost 1/3 to 1/2 as much and also run Linu by shymko · · Score: 3

    Yup. I am one of those 90%.

    And, like everybody else around here, I'm a tinkerer. I've run linux for web development, as a router, and as a desktop. I've tried GeoWorks, OS/2, most of the Windows flavors, and BeOS on PPC. I've used Slackware, RedHat, Debian, SuSE, and Caldera. I helped administer a FreeBSD server in a library. I buy or assemble a computer every few months then usually sell it after I get bored.

    But nothing has proven of any lasting value until I got an iMac at home (well, okay, that FreeBSD box was pretty solid). It takes care of a lot of things that bug me: it's small, quiet, doesn't demand a lot of maintenance, makes good use of the ADSL line and it runs Netscape Communicator without a hitch for hours on end. Most Linux boxes won't even do the last part.

    If it had a bit more room for more pixels and ran a terminal window with bash, it'd serve the needs of a good chunk of that /. 90% as well. Gimme emacs, gimp and apache on an iMac, and I'm not sure what else I'd need.

    Sure, Apple is greedy and pushes silly proprietary ideas too far. But when they get the hardware right, it's damn impressive to see. Nobody else seems to understand the idea of a home Internet appliance. Give 'em some credit.