Wal-Mart debuts $498 Linux laptop

[billbuckhead]

Wal-Mart debuts $498 Linux laptop

Published: December 20, 2004, 9:14 AM PST

By Dinesh C. Sharma
Special to CNET News.com
Walmart.com and Linspire on Monday unveiled a Linux-based laptop priced at $498.

The computer, dubbed Balance, comes loaded with the Linspire operating system and the OpenOffice.org office suite, the companies said.

more <http://news.com.com/Wal-Mart+debuts+498+Linux+laptop/2100-1044_3-5498006.html?tag=nefd.top>

Hopefully someone less odious will come out with something similar.

[Deja Q]

1. Linspire = Lindoze. Crap CPU. 128MB of RAM is a joke.

I'd even recommend a Mac, with no hesitation, over that piece of garbage.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Oh come on, stop with the WM bashing for a second...

that is a perfectly acceptable system for Linux, and you know it.

we are not talking about hi-level gaming graphics here, we are talking about what the OS movement is SUPPOSED to be all about... reducing the limts to access of information.

And this seems to do that.

I applaude their balls in doing it in the face of what you know was resistance from Redmond. I wonder if they will keep their relationship with that corporation now?

[LoZoccolo]

11. Oh shit 128MB.

I should read the specs before I start saying that Wal-Mart ROCKS because of this one thing.

Yeah you can get a cheap eMachines laptop for like, a little over twice the price that probably has more than twice the goods on it.

[sally343434]

3. HAHA

I guess after just about every computer outlet on earth has been flim-flammed by the "it's a great linux machine and linux is going to crush windows" pitch since the 80's, they even got Wal Mart to fall for it! HAHA! I guess it really is easy to fool these computer illiterate buyers at general-merchandise retailers!

What next? After these "disappear" from the product list at Wal Mart, we'll next see them at ... Baskin & Robbins?

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Sweet Jesus, talk about irony

[Union Thug]

5. Yeah, I'm sure it will be as fine a product as the e-machine...

Doing tech support back in 99, if the customer said they had an e-machine, we knew the chances of them ever getting connected to a POP server was desperately thin.

[immoderate]

6. I saw one for less than $400 in a TigerDirect catalog.

That was during the summer. Nothing big time. Celeron if I remember correctly. I think they called it Lindows, had to change the name.

On edit: Whoops, I missed the laptop part. I didn't know VIA made a CPU, either.

--IMM

[short bus president]

7. If the hardware holds up, this is good.

A cromulent laptop with much more noteworthy hardware can be had for the same price with no OS preinstalled from the right outlets www.pricewatch.com

But if you can take this malwart thing and put a real linux on it and have a functional machine, hell yeah! And hypno - don't be a RAM snob. A svelte debian can run reasonably quick on half what the malwart machine provides!

[billbuckhead]

8. For someone just using it to get on the internet this is a bargain

I've used open office and it's allright and this will work with Mozilla.

[short bus president]

9. Heh - here's where open source and I have a falling out...

I use MS Office inside of Crossover in my linux system.

But yeah - like I said, it the hardware on this lappy lasts, I can see a lot of kids having a functional laptop who might otherwise not have one, and it can only be a good thing. Maybe they'll even get curious enough to try to tweak it for speed.

[LoZoccolo]

10. Dude, Wal-Mart ROCKS!

:thumbsup: