Walmart Offers Sub-$500 laptop With Linspire 589
LehiNephi writes "Cnet reports that Walmart is offering a sub-$500 notebook running Linspire. The specs are less-than impressive: a 1GHz VIA C3 processor, 128 MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, and a plain vanilla CD-ROM. Seems overpriced for what you get, but cheap nonetheless. And yes, it does run Linux."
Not bad (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What everyone wants to know.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder if they include a disclamer... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd almost wager that 80% of the people who buy these (or who buy a computer from WalMart in general) are n00bs, and will try returning the devices because 'there's no microsoft word or internet explorer on it'.
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Warts? They are more like sucking chest wounds.
Anyone who shops at WalMart is party to the destruction of the american middle class, the 40 hour work week, and employer paid health care.
Re:What everyone wants to know.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, with 128MB of RAM according to the specs, I wouldn't try iy. At least not a recent version of windows.
Call me when... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I feel bad for whoever is putting these together for WalMart. They just got a hugenormous client (WalMart) who will be both the best and worst thing that ever happened to them.
Where I work we split our time between trying to provide excellent service to our non-WalMart customers while keeping WalMart happy because they account for such a huge chunk of our revenue it's not even funny. And that's pretty normal for any company WalMart does business with.
low spec? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder if they include a disclamer... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, put a 'W' icon linking to Openoffice or AmiWord and a 'E' 'Internet' icon pointing to Firefox and I bet they wouldn't know the difference.
Not too shabby. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not awesome? (Score:3, Insightful)
That was about 10 years ago.
Sure, this thing isn't going to be a screaming game machine, but honestly, how much horsepower do you need for text editing, email, and some casual browsing, anyway?
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems someone has been watching a bit too much South Park.
*Referring to South Park Episode # 8-09*
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Some people have no friggin concept of the economy and capitalism whatsoever. As if the great founders of America implanted a economic system based around freedoms and capitalism... but they had NO IDEA there would be someplace like Wal-Mart!!! I mean... we just can't compete!!!
Complete ignorance. People like you put us on the fast-track to protectionism and an isolated economy just so we can give the high-school dropout and union job with full benefits and garuanteed pay raises every year. Nevermind the complete loss of any motivation to outperform your peers and better yourself.
Re:Microsoft and Walmart. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I wonder if they include a disclamer... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not bad (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What everyone wants to know.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Incredible (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Equates Linux with Cheap?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now (25 years later) we are finding that we (the US) have overpriced our labor to the point were we are non-competitive in any basic industries. Now my former classmates are unemployed, or on strike for years at a time, and up a creek. The slightly more enlightened among them are at a community college trying to make up for lost time.
Wal*Mart charges a low price and pays a low rate. Don't like it, go to school and get a job doing something other than stocking shelves. No other jobs in Podunk other than Wal*Mart? Move.
Grow up, people. Wal*Mart only controls the job supply if you let it. Train yourself for something other than stocking shelves or waving UPC's over scanners. Especially since we're automating that function, too.
Way too many stereotypes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder if they include a disclamer... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:2, Insightful)
It reminds me of West Virginia coal mines of the 1920's and 30's and their company-owned towns. Your monthly wages never exceeded your monthly costs for rent, food, clothes and your kids 'education' in the company owned and run stores and schools, so you we always in debt to the company.
People originally flocked to Walmart because the low prices allowed them to keep more of their income from their middle class jobs and spend it on other things besides food and clothes. But, as Walmart drove the middle class jobs out of town, many found that they could no longer afford to shop any place else.
Now that most of the Walmart merchandise has "Made in China" labels on it, Americans have completed the task of sending their remaining jobs and income overseas and in doing so are funding a Marxist dictatorship bent on our own destruction. America, truly a "company store" again. Add to that the fact we that sending what money we have left to Mid-Eastern Oil producing states so we can drive SUV that get 12 mpg and proof of our insanity is complete.
Pr0n, booze, drugs and Walmart. What a sad commentary.
How ironic (Score:4, Insightful)
Then I saw the other machine that has an "Athlon 4" CPU in it (whatever that is) for fifty bucks more and comes with built-in wireless networking. "Oh boy," I thought, and headed over there to check that one out. And of course, the one that has wireless networking comes with XP.
Gonna be real easy "taking over the desktop market" when you can't even get installed in a machine with wireless networking support...
Re:I wonder if they include a disclamer... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not awesome? (Score:5, Insightful)
its all a matter of perspective. to some people that want/need a laptop but dont need a lot of power, cheaper is always better. also, i think there is something about $500 for a laptop. people see that to get a dell desktop is about $500, but to get a walmart laptop ('hey, walmart is a well-known brand' they think to themselves) is now the same price. okay, maybe you need the $550 model to get windows to make that a little more fair. my point is that $500 for a laptop is mad cheap, regardless of the quality. that amount of money has not gotten you a laptop new for some time(if ever). the battery life is terrible, however, ill give you that.
well, crap. i typed all that and just now saw your recommendation for a used celeron. that is a viable solution, theres a 1ghz dell on ebay for $400 right now.
Re:Seems cheap for what you get ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Healthy and fair competition is the best thing for society, in nearly every arena.
Re:What everyone wants to know.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Equates Linux with Cheap?? (Score:4, Insightful)
a) Wipe it out and replace it with Windows
b) Throw the computer into the trashcan
c) Continue to use Linux because it gets the job done
I think c) is perfectly ok, b) is rather unlikly and if they do a), what do you expect? Either WinXP will run even more slow or it will be a faster, if its slower, no lose, people will figure its not Linux fault that the computer is slow, if XP is faster, then well, Linux IS actually slow and people will remember it, because its the truth. Can't see anything bad with that.
Re:Gotta love Walmart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes you can save money, but their is allways a price, be it quality, ethics, or price.
Personally My ethics are not so cheap as to be willing to give them away so easily to save a few bucks.
Re: Healthcare as a business expense (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. However, the insurance companies can only do what they do because the chain of responsibility that turns the legislators into power brokers for the insurance companies enables them to.
I see the chain of responsibility in this order:
The insurance companies have what amounts to a license to mint money. The legislators gave it to them.
The lawyers also have a license to mint money, and the legislators gave it to them as well.
The political parties only produce candidates that will toe the line and produce pork.
The people give the political parties the the power to do this, and they have not moved to take it away.
The legislature has in turn very carefully made it very difficult (with the single exception of California as far as I know) for the people to have any power whatsoever in changing how the system works. They do this by distracting the gullible majority with bullshit issues like drugs and "obscenity" and useless, unproductive wars in third-world countries, while they avoid dealing with healthcare and tort reform as if it was the plague. And of course, to them, it is the plague, because of the level of political pork that arises from the back room intercourse they engage in with the insurance industry. Screw that up, and they could lose income and the cushy job. And they know it.
The tea went into Boston harbor for far less reason than all of this adds up to. American citizens are the ones bending over; so who can really blame the legislature if they go for a quick sample of ass? Stand up for yourself, vote the incumbents out of office -- no matter who they are -- next time around and send a coherent message. Or don't, and pay through the nose for your healthcare.
Re:Seems cheap for what you get ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Hardly an exaggeration ... a year ago, for $55, NewEgg sold a Celeron MB populated with a
VIA 'GigaPro' C3 that would have taken 17 years with Prime95 to complete a single test.
-- ...
Sandra identified the C3 chip as Samuel or Ezekiel.
It certainly would require a miracle of Biblical proportions
for a VIA 1GHz to beat a Pentium 166MMX
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
So who's taking the hit? (Score:3, Insightful)