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Walmart.com's $498 Laptop - Are You “Linspired”?
Computers | Jan 6, 05
Yeah, you read right. For just under five hundred bucks a Linux-loaded laptop from Wal-Mart is yours. It's the Balance CN4949 and it comes with a VIA C3 1 GHz microprocessor, a 14.1 in LCD display, a 30 GB hard drive, 128MB of RAM and an office suite from OpenOffice.org. And, oh yes, the Linspire Linux operating system, which is to say this is the Colossus of Little Rock's demonstration of just how inexpensive computing can be if one breaks out of Microsoft's orbit. The interesting question here is whether so low a price point might actually persuade PC users to try life on the Linux side. There are those who argue that the cost of paying Linux support firms like Red Hat, coupled with the Linux learning curve, present daunting obstacles which keep this free operating system the preserve of servers and system admin types. But Walmart.com is clearly gunning for the client side laptop user, banking on Linspire's user-friendly implementation and a dirt-cheap price to break through the Linux fear barrier. If it works, count on Dell, HP & Co. to take note, and for Redmond to find itself with a hell of a headache.
One other note – its interesting to consider Wal-Mart's move in the context of Apple's rumored pending release of an ultra-low-cost Mac (see David Ness's piece on this below). If this machine materializes it may demonstrate that cheap boxes can be born of even the most proprietary hardware and operating system technology. Perhaps there's a lot more room on the low end in the Windows world as well, albeit at the cost of slimmer margins.
Posted by jeffrey.trester (Permalink)
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Comments
Only the strong survive. Who, pray tell, can tell me of their happiness with redmond Inc. Please make me aware that I just happened to get a lemon and that MicroSoft Windows OS is really great and worth every penny, or even some of the pennys........
The silence is deafening.
If The Penguin has it together as it seems to, let the good times roll. I would gladly spend more on an OS that works and eleminates all the headaches that Gates and company have poured upon our heads. Price is only an issue when I am not getting my moneys worth.
Gates should have stuck to DOS and IBM and maybe we would all be happy campers using Apple systems (Which Gates tried to copy and created a monster that requires an endless flow of modifications and patches that for every one installed, two more are required to fix the previous screw up.....Don't get me started!
Darryl S.
Posted by: Darryl Springston at January 10, 2005 5:47 AM
