Cheap Linux laptops from Walmart [LWN.net]

Cheap Linux laptops from Walmart

Posted Dec 20, 2004 18:16 UTC (Mon) by rknight (subscriber, #26792)
Parent article: Cheap Linux laptops from Walmart

Why is it so expensive? Walmart also sells a Windows XP Home Edition System with an AMD 1.1Ghz processor, 40 GB Drive (10 GB larger), the same 128 MB of memory, a DVD-ROM drive (instead of CD-ROM) and wireless networking for a mere $50 more. I'd personally spend the extra $50, dump the Windows and install Debian.

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Cheap Linux laptops from Walmart

Posted Dec 20, 2004 21:24 UTC (Mon) by xorbe (subscriber, #3165) [Link]

In fact, *no* networking or modem is listed... yet one gets a limited free CNR (click'n'run) online account...

Really, spend $200 more and get a decently featured Celeron machine with DVD/CDRW and some ram and 100mbit network. Also a Celeron will pound a 1GHz C3 into the ground (I have both with 512MB ram, I know!)

Cheap Linux laptops from Walmart

Posted Dec 22, 2004 17:44 UTC (Wed) by sbergman27 (subscriber, #10767) [Link]

Some background and speculation. Wal-Mart used to carry a $199 PC which came with Linspire (then called Lindows). The model got dropped. (Which is a shame, because they made great, reliable, inexpensive thin clients when loaded with my custom kickstart install of Fedora.) The new models were more expensive. They just recently reintroduced a $199 model again running Xandros' free edition. I suspect that Linspire started charging some per copy fee for Lindows/Linspire. I have no problem with that, but I suspect that we will be seeing a cheaper model of this laptop for less money, running Xandros, or some other distro. They are, after all, Wal-Mart, and if they are paying a fee and can cut it out of the equation, they will.