Rediculously low cost laptop?

[mike]

I’ve just been looking at this new laptop Wal-Mart is selling at about $500. I guess Wal-Mart has a pretty big reputation for low cost items but this deal has them on the front page of about half the news sites I’ve visited today.

Wal-Mart has apparently partnered with Linspire on this venture. It’s basically a fairly well appointed little laptop for about a quarter of the price you’d expect to pay for one. It looks like it’s carrying a decent processor, good amount of ram and Linspire’s own operating system. I’d love to see one of these things in action. If anybody gets one of these under the tree this year, be sure you come back and give us the skinny on it.

[Claud]

I only found it by going to linspire first, on Wal-Mart I didn't see it at the beginning.

It looks nice, almost makes me feel sorry 'cause I bought a Presario 2200 that I thought had a very low price.

[johnmcm]

This is a very impressive move by "Linspire Linux" to take a nice slice of the "mass consumer market" from Microsoft. Linspire is actually selling the Linux operating system in the form of a lost leader "laptop computer". Wow I'm impressed. It's moves like this that make the giants of the future.

My advice would be to fill your boots with Linspire stock if it's available as they seem to be doing all the right moves and making all the right partners to hit the big time.

http://media.linspire.com/walmart

[iamrussell]

Can you install XP on it?

[johnmcm]

Pritty sure you will be able to install any operating system.

Dosn't have much ram and Windows dose need more than Linux.

Oh one more thing! I tried to buy some stock but it turns out the IPO was withdrawn according to Roth who really had "no comment" about it. And no-one at the company seems to know anything about it. Maybe I was wrong about the stock:)

Go fish

[caromero1965]

I can tell you right now, with a Via C3 under the hood this thing will offer top-of-the-line performance... if your standards were set in 1999. The C3 is an interesting choice for a laptop-- uses very little power compared to an Intel or AMD CPU-- but performance-wise it's about comparable to a 500MHz Pentium III. Not something you want to run Windows XP on (it would certainly work and be stable, it would just be quite slow esp. with 128MB of RAM). Linspire probably runs on it reasonably well, because it's a reasonably un-demanding operating system.

Personally I'd say take a pass on this thing. Spend an extra $250-400 and get a machine that will run rings around this thing and be useable for much longer. HP, for example, has a reasonably well-equipped notebook (the Compaq Presario 2200) at $650, and at least one other model under $700.

-A

[Sanjo]

People on this forum are a different breed then those people out in the real world.

Whether or not anyone on this forum will buy it or not; this'll still be a great boost for Linspire and Linux.

[flood6]

This story seems to be everywhere. I think it's fantastic that Linux will be able to get this kind of exposure and be opened to a new market...you know, trailer parks (just kidding).

I'm not sure I would have picked Lindows to be the Linux ambassador to mainstream retail, but I don't think Linux advocates can be too picky.

People on this forum are a different breed then those people out in the real world.

I mutter this to myself like twice a day.

[mikmik]

Actually, Linspire equipped Desktops for 279 USD appeared at Wal-Mart quite a while ago, maybe a year or so. It came with a 90 day (I think) membership to Wine downloads (Windows aplication compatible). It was introduced with fanfare as well, and claims that it would get *nix recognition to the general populace.

That's the last I heard of that one also.

[Affiliate Boss]

hmm not for me I need something windows and fast..