The $199 PC arrives at Walmart

[Hamburgerpimp]

Available at your local Walmart. The biggest retailer in the country. Wait, the biggest company in the world!

I bet MS is upset.



http://213.219.40.69/?article=5216

For all you too lazy, ripped for your pleasure:

The $199 PC arrives at Walmart

Running Lindows on VIA C3 processor

THE $199 PC promised by the makers of the Lindows operating system is now available from Walmart online.
While Intel and AMD continue to pile on increasingly irrelevant megahurtage, users simply wanting to connect to the internet and type a few letters will be wooed by the appearance of low-cost PC systems. Cost-cutting Walmart is ablle to offer the sub-200 PC by ditching both major chip makers as well as Microsoft.

The Microtel-branded PCs use VIA's C3 processor combined with Lindows to sneak under the $200 barrier. A version of the PC box sporting Windows XP Home edition costs a full $100 more at $299.

The PC boxes come without a monitor but sport a 800MHz VIA C3 processor with 133MHz Front Side Bus, 128MB SDRAM, integrated 2D/3D graphics and a 10GB hard disk. Walmart also offer a range of OS-less PCs, irking the mighty Microsoft.

 

[Orsorum]

Well... I suppose it's not that horrible. Hopefully it's marketed as a simple, non-workhorse machine. I'd consider buying one as a gift for my mom sometime. It's still better than the machine she has now.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

megahurtage

The funny is present.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

Wonder if Anand could do a review on it!!

 

[Mrburns2007]

Built for grandma....

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

The funny is present.

The English talk funny.

 

[Sluggo]

This machine was covered in another forum here, maybe General Hardware or Hot Deals. Found it here the thread generally dismisses the PC as SUCK, since the CPU basically offers no more computing power than a 500 Celeron.

Non subscriber link

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

A new 500 celeron computer with 10g HD isn't bad for under $200.

edit: Damn, we have mutiple threads on this wonderful machine going!

 

[djheater]

I don't know... I think it's great... I want every kid in Appalachia... all the reservations and all the projects to have a computer nad be online....

this goes a long way toward accomplishing that....

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: djheater
I don't know... I think it's great... I want every kid in Appalachia... all the reservations and all the projects to have a computer nad be online....

this goes a long way toward accomplishing that....

Amen to that!

 

[vegetation]

Not bad, good replacement machine for a typical pentium classic out of the mid 90s.

 

[jjones]

Not bad at all. Nothing wrong with the processor speed, decent storage, and enough ram to do the job. Great product for users who do nothing more than run a few proggies and surf.

 

[RossMAN]

Or you could pay $200 more and get this eMachines:

1.2GHz Celeron
128MB SDRAM
20GB HD
48x CD-ROM
17" monitor
PC starter kit (Epson C60 printer, Office XP for Students/Teachers, APC UPS, Norton AV, book, paper, CD-Rs)

Of course there are 3 major catches:
1) Expires anyday or it has already.
2) eMachines suck but in their price range no one can touch them.
3) $630 in rebates

 

[rh71]

Didn't Lindows turn around and admit the OS cannot run WIN32 applications stably?

from CNET

 

[Shalmanese]

Whats the point of getting that eMachine for twice as much. the "non-demanding user" is never going to use up more than 10GB, wont notice the speed increase, they can get Star office or Open office rather than Office XP and There are barely any viruses for Linux. Using a UPS for a $200 computer isnt worth it and whats the point of CD-R's if they dont have a CD burner?

The only thing the emachine has is an extra printer and thats not exactly hard to get standalong.

When I was working in a Comp shop a couple of weeks ago, I rarely ever saw a ATX box come in for repairs and NEVER a P3 or above. The people who were using P200's and their ilk seemed perfectly contented with their speed and it was onl when they got a digital camera or something that needed USB that they came in for an upgrade.

Plus, not exactly every country is as wealthy as the US. They could make millions expanding into China or India with this type of low budget machine.

 

[ElFenix]

bah, this whole internet thing is just a fad anyway. no point blowing $200 on it.

as for expanding into china, doesn't legend already have this sort of thing covered?

 

[FoBoT]

good deal for the email/internet only crowd

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Sluggo
This machine was covered in another forum here, maybe General Hardware or Hot Deals. Found it here the thread generally dismisses the PC as SUCK, since the CPU basically offers no more computing power than a 500 Celeron.[/L]

Do you really need 2.4Ghz P4 with GF4 to run a browser, an email-client and a word-processor?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: Sluggo
This machine was covered in another forum here, maybe General Hardware or Hot Deals. Found it here the thread generally dismisses the PC as SUCK, since the CPU basically offers no more computing power than a 500 Celeron.[/L]

Do you really need 2.4Ghz P4 with GF4 to run a browser, an email-client and a word-processor?

ummm... yes.

 

[BigJohnKC]

There any 199 dollar laptops? Or just desktops?

 

[Stifko]

WTF is Lindows anyway?

 

[Pocatello]

Not much you can do without a monitor, obviously, I hope it's obvious to the typical wal-mart shoppers . Of course, a monitor would push it beyond the $200 mark.

 

[wyvrn]

Linux based OS that looks and feels like Windows. That's why its cheap, because Linux is open source.

Originally posted by: Stifko
WTF is Lindows anyway?

 

[geno]

Do you really need 2.4Ghz P4 with GF4 to run a browser, an email-client and a word-processor?

ummm... yes.[/quote]

Jeeze, you must run into some pretty complex html, since you need all that power to crunch through the code

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: genocide

Do you really need 2.4Ghz P4 with GF4 to run a browser, an email-client and a word-processor?

ummm... yes.

Jeeze, you must run into some pretty complex html, since you need all that power to crunch through the code [/quote]

well intel says it accelerates the internet, right?