Wal-Mart's $200 Linux PC Sells Out 619
hankmt writes "About a week ago Wal-Mart began selling a $200 Linux machine running on a 1.5 ghz VIA C7 processor and 512 MB of RAM. While the specs are useless for Vista, it works blazingly fast on Ubuntu with the Enlightenment Window Manager. The machine is now officially sold out of their online warehouses (it may still be available in some stores). And the product sales page at wal-mart.com is full of glowing reviews from new and old Linux users alike."
Desktop Linux growth in 2007 (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the Walmart results might be indicative of a growing trend where people are just about ready to make the leap themselves... particularly when it comes preinstalled like it does here. Another step in the right direction.
What I'd love to see, though, is how much previous computer experience all of those Walmart reviewers had -- for some, it seems like quite a bit.
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Electronics kits for the digital generation. [nerdkits.com]
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:4, Insightful)
Dubious (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't expect many returns. (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember, these are typical Walmart customers here.
That is important, they are not like Slasdot readers. Unlike business users or college students, M$ has done no favors for these people and they have zero loyalty.
How many of them are going to return these things when that AOL CD they have doesn't work automagically?
I don't know. The EEE has an AOL button, no CD is required. I know it's hard to believe but AOL would be happy to spam users of other OS.
How many of these people are expected to have DSL or Cable instead of dial-up?
None. Why should they?
How many are going to be returned because they don't have MS Office pre-installed on them?
None. Open Office is more than enough for the average school paper. Very few people actually NEED M$ Office for work and even they hate it. The rest of the world considers M$'s ever changing, secret file formats an expensive ass pain. They are right.
Anyone who actually needs M$ Office will have their boss pay for it or pirate the junk. If M$ makes the second option impossible, the first option will have to happen or the boss will learn to use free software. M$ is not going to be able to get everyone to pony up $400 every couple of years for a text editor and that's where they system breaks down. Sooner or later, all of those smart business users and college graduates will figure out that they don't need M$ either.
Cool, but how many did the really sell? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't trust the reviews (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Walmart Lesson:Linux is Popular in Middle Ameri (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Walmart Lesson:Linux is Popular in Middle Ameri (Score:2, Insightful)
WalMart consumers don't care what the machine runs. They just see a machine than can do email, word processing, and can browse the web. The most important thing about the machine is price. If it ran Windows and cost $200, it would still sell out.
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:5, Insightful)
I think a load of these were bought by linux fans wanting to support linux on a retail box. for a low price.
Re:Oh get real (Score:3, Insightful)
Most people I know use their PC for web browsing and word processing; this system would be plenty good enough for that, so long as they had a monitor to go with it.
Heck, if I can install more hard disks in there I'm tempted to buy one myself and stick it in the basement to replace my desktop system as our file-server... it's got to burn less power than a 3GHz Pentium.
Re:Walmart Lesson:Linux is Popular in Middle Ameri (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Must resist.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Support??? (Score:3, Insightful)
lol dollars (Score:0, Insightful)
BTW, I've yet to meet someone who hates Microsoft Office (the "junk" as you call it, lol), as per your assertion. I guess since OpenOffice is an exact clone of it, they'll hate it too as well, right? I doubt that was your intended point. But I bet that sort of vague power statement does wonders with the moderators.
Are you what they call "free software evangelist" these days?
Re:Useful user reviews - oh wait (Score:1, Insightful)
Can somebody say "Liar"?
Re:Based upon the comments there ... none. (Score:3, Insightful)
The same kid may also know a certain alphanumeric string that can fix the Linux trouble.
Re:lol dollars (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. "Hate" might be too strong a word.
However, tell a small business client that they've got to buy a separate license for EACH station for MS-Office. While you might not get "hate", you're sure not going to get any "sweet sweet lovin' ", either. Typically, they next ask for workarounds to install one copy on multiple machines.
Personally, that's my big gripe with Office and Vista. MS marketing aside, I can't see the value in paying $400 for a software package that does what its parent company wants. Heck, I have installed an OS that didn't cost a dime and uses an office suite of the same cost... and it does what *I* want.
....and I donate to support those. THAT is value.
Re:Wal-Mart is really trying to make Linux sell (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:3, Insightful)
If people were lining up for this, they knew what it was. They read about it ahead of time. They didn't just line up for the fu...n of it.
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:5, Insightful)
Assuming that at least some of those sales of this box was to Joe Average, this can be a boon or bust moment all dependant on the support they get from WalMart. If WalMart washes their hands after sale (i.e. "All sales are final. Take it up with the manufacturer or Ubuntu") then this could be doomed after all the geeks have gotten theirs.
Personally, I wish WalMart success on this venture. There is nothing more healthy to a monopoly than competition.
Cheap/Slow PCs are more than capable (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope these machines are good. I used to buy the $200 Fry's Great Quality machines, but Fry's is no longer selling those
Me too. Well the architecture is pretty similar (cyrix CPU) but it looks like the software is a factor better, many of those GQ machines didn't have adequate drivers to support the on-board video so you were stuck at 640x480 or whatever. Though installing Mandrake (back then) usually took care of that.
The thing that really burns me is all the "Good for Light Word Processing"crap these power-system zealots keep spewing - and I ma not discriminating here, all of the platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux are full of em. I can tell you that machine (512MB RAM/80GB HDD) is probably capable of some great DTP (Scribus) could be great for illustration (Inkscape) and really serious office work (OOo). It may not be fast at doing such things, but we should never say it is not capable.
As a Classic computerist I know of authors who write books and other published works still on Commodore 64s, (heck some have never left their typewriter behind). To them they get familiar with something and stick to it they don't upgrade because they are to busy being productive with what they have (the hard part is finding replacement parts for their daisy wheel printers). Same reason why the XO will be a hit with kids, they will not see those laptops as underpowered or slow, but the draw is they have access and the speed isn't really a factor when you are starting out (as they get better and outgrow it, then that's another matter; it took me years to outgrow the VIC-20).
Re:Modems vs broadband (Score:4, Insightful)
But anyway, I think this is a moot point; most people who bought the machines probably knew exactly what they were buying. It'll only be when the enthusiast market gets saturated that you're going to see these machines trickling down to the "retractable cupholder" crowd.
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Walmart Lesson:Linux is Popular in Middle Ameri (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't shop at Walmart. I don't like their business practices so I choose to spend my money elsewhere. Maybe everyone doesn't have the luxury to avoid buying at the lowest common denominator.
Every time I walk into a Walmart it's full of wretched looking shoppers and employees that appear even worse. I would rather not spend my evening or weekend standing in line with my items waiting because Walmart can't be bothered to hire more cashiers. It isn't as if they cost much to employ. On average Walmart doesn't even pay health care for their employees.
It's really great that Linux based PC's are selling but after all the horrible experiences I have had at that place I'm not willing to recommend shopping there to anyone even if only online.
I disagree (Score:2, Insightful)
The reviews on Walmart could be subject to that sort of deletion process, or they could just be completely benign, the stores having been flooded by Linux afficionados absorbing all their supply, leaving few to no laptops for any random regular Joe Lusers to try.
Re:What's that in bogomips (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:lol dollars (Score:5, Insightful)
Then perhaps you'd like to address the issues he raises instead.
I've listed them below for your convenience.
Re:Walmart Lesson:Linux is Popular in Middle Ameri (Score:3, Insightful)
Excellent. (Score:1, Insightful)
This is excellent since it means that the PHBs at Walmart will notice that this product is a bestseller. That further means more cheap Linux PCs being made available and sold.
All of this serves to bump up the percentage of computers sold with Linux versus Windows PCs and Macs. I imagine that it will serve mostly to take percentage points away from Windows, since the market share of Macs has only increased lately with the availability of Boot Camp, VMware Fusion, and Parallels.
The extension of the above logic is one small increase in the snowball effect: More Linux PCs sold means pie charts in corporate meetings show less Windows market share coupled with increasing Linux market share. This lends additional credibility to the platform, besides the credibility it already has with support from all major computing companies except a certain behemoth from Washington state, and the reputation it already has as a platform with many choices and possibilities, rock-solid stability, and widespread use in servers. The additional credibility applies to the use of Linux on the desktop. This leads commercial developers to make more Linux software; both in turn lead to higher credibility for the system. Bottom line: Linux is chipping away, slowly but surely, at the market share, power, and revenue of the aforementioned behemoth.
Google is a better company than Microsoft.
Re:But I'm confused. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Based upon the comments there ... none. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:But I'm confused. (Score:5, Insightful)
I never disliked Walmart. Although I am aware of the reasons many people do not like Walmart. (No, I don't need them reiterated here, thank you.)
One thing I've suspected for awhile, is that the "Linux Revolution" (Linux taking off as a desktop alternative) would NOT happen at businesses or with high-end users. It will happen much like the "Windows Revolution" happened back in the 90's. It will start with the "Walmart buyer". Ordinary people making ordinary FINANCIAL decisions to buy a cheap PC.
This is the regular, ordinary, joe-sixpack, "what's a right-click?" kind of person. The kind of people scorned by many of the elitists in the OS and PC fields. The people looked down upon by many many many here at Slashdot as backward, ignorant rubes living in "flyover country". The kind of people that voted for GW Bush, that fly American flags from their porches, that have communities with 4th of July parties that everyone in town attends. Small-town middle American traditional people.
THEY are the ones that will start the Linux revolution. Not because they "did the research" or "grok FOSS" or any of that elitist crap. But because it makes financial sense to buy a $200 US PC that can do everything they need it to do. They will get introduced to Linux for the first time, perhaps as their first PC EVER, and will love it. They will stick with this machine for at least 5 years, as it will be able to handle all the basic tasks they need it for, and when it dies or they need another, they will look for another LINUX PC to replace it with.
The Linux revolution begins... In Iowa, at Walmart.
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:3, Insightful)
I resent that incredibly racist and elitist statement. I may not be the "typical" WalMart customer, but I do shop there. I would be a fool to spend fifty dollars for a pair of jeans elsewhere when I can get a pair of Wranglers at Wal Mart for $12. I would be a fool to pay $8 for a big bottle of Listerine at Osco's ehen I can get the same bottle for half the price at Wal Mart.
Is Wal Mart evil? Sure they are. ALL big corporations are evil. I'd rather spend ten bucks on a pair of sneakers made by child labor at WalMart than a pair of Nikes made by child labor at some high priced mall store.
BTW, your ignorance is showing. They're not going to need that AOL CD; the internet works out of the box on a Linux computer, unlike Windows.
-mcgrew
Re:Not to troll, but what do they expect for retur (Score:3, Insightful)
I do refuse to use the self-checkout in th egrocery store. Not like it's going to do any good, I used to refuse to use self-service at the gas station untill there was no such thing as full service.
If there was an alternative I'd use it. But it's buy a Matushushi at WalMart or buy the same brand somewhere else. Maytag is no longer made in the US; Zenith sold out to France years ago and no longer is made in the US. Fords are made in Canada. Everything is outsourced; I don't understand why the US hasn't gone broke already, as we don't make anything any more!
I'm not going to knock the wall down by butting my head against it.
Re:Aargh! (Score:4, Insightful)