Wal-Mart sells out of the $200 Linux gPC

We honestly didn't know what to expect from Wal-Mart's $200 Everex gPC, but it looks like the early results of putting Linux in front of Middle America are overwhelmingly positive -- Wal-Mart's online warehouse has already sold out of the cheapo Linux box, and users both savvy and new are filing enthusiastic reviews. Of course, it's still early and we can't imagine anyone getting too down on a $200 computer, but it certainly looks like Team Ubuntu is making a strong play to shift the balance in those OS wars.

[Via Slashdot]

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 13th 2007 7:35PM]

Like a good majority of you, I'm a certified geek power user. These $200 gOS computers are NOT intended for us. They're for people that want to do basic tasks painlessly - and they work well at their intended function.

I received a call last week from a client that I'd previously worked with (removing viruses/malware from her old XP machine.) She asked me to pop by and teach her and her computer-phobic husband to use the new system they planned on buying.

She called back today to cancel her appointment. She told me she bought one of these new systems and that "so far, no problems." She promised she'd call if she couldn't figure something out and needed help.

She's quite happy to have her email/IM/web browsing working. The husband just discovered Facebook and Wikipedia (hard to miss with those huge buttons). I think it's a killer idea. Bonus: When I do go over to teach them how to get more out of their new system, I won't be wasting my time (and their money) teaching them about viruses, scanning for malware, defragging and all the other nonsense they previously assumed was a necessity.

The downside to being a power user is that we lose touch with what non-geeks want from a computer.

[Mile Posted Nov 14th 2007 6:40AM]

You won't mention defraging....why?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 14th 2007 3:31PM]

Long boring, technical conversation aside, Common Linux Filesystems are less prone to fragmentation and, when fragmented, less prone to suffer from degraded performance as a result. The bottom line is that fragmentation under Linux is something for the computer to worry about, not the user.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 13th 2007 9:01PM]

I see a lot of people criticizing the "Linux UI," whatever that is (for the sake of the discussion I'll assume that you all mean GNU/Linux and are not referring to the command line). There is no single "Linux UI." If you are referring to the default UI of GNOME or KDE (or any other one such as the default UI of gOS), what is wrong with them? I personally think that Linux generally looks a lot better than Windows XP (to me, the titlebars look too big and a little weird, and the whole OS feels like... hard to explain, but it's the same thing about the Gamecube looking like a cheap toy). And besides, the default configurations of GNOME and KDE (moreso KDE) are very similar to Windows, and I don't think any competent computer would be confused by a K or an iguana or whatever in the same place as the Start menu or a symbol in the top-left that says "Applications." Just my take on this whole "Linux UI needs to change" discussion. By the way, Evolution, the default email client in Ubuntu, is supposedly just as good as if not better than Outlook (I haven't used it), and Vixta is basically just of Fedora themed to look similar to Vista, but dissimilar enough that they won't get sued (hopefully). That said, I think Vixta looks really nice, but unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try it (or Fedora) out yet.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 13th 2007 9:03PM]

Oops... meant to reply to TheCow5

[TheCow5 Posted Nov 14th 2007 2:45AM]

I won’t disagree with anything you’ve said, but simply state that I like Linux and believe it will be the future but at the same time must give MS respect for each time they created an OS they were criticize they answered with another better OS and was criticize again and created another better OS, and so on.
Linux is not ready for end users but for ppl like you and I it’s just want the doctor ordered.
I like GNOME over KDE and WinXP but that’s me, most ppl have XP, Vixta is a nice fry by fedora and I’ve gotten someone on it for over a month now, but that’s simply someone who had XP and use their PC for all things internet and Printing only.

[Silent K Posted Nov 13th 2007 9:24PM]

The sad part about this $200 computer is that the case looks better than most of the cases you can get for less than $80 out there. The great part is that you can get a whole computer for $200 with OS and "it just works".

I'm really excited that Walmart has done this for the Linux desktop, and with the Asus EEE, we can only expect to be paying $200 for a "decent computer" in the near future (desktop or portable).

[BigD145 Posted Nov 13th 2007 9:35PM]

I predict the power supply is the first thing to fail within 3-6 months. That or the optical drive.

[traut Posted Nov 13th 2007 9:53PM]

I guess it must be due to the price only since claiming to be green is not supported by anyother proof.

Are there any specs around about the real power consumption? Everex names 2 Watts - which is the standby power of the cpu only. The board should be around 20 Watts during operation. However, their other models have power supplies rated at about 250 or 300 Watts - I see nothing green about that.

Concerning gOS - that's a very strange licencing model which I do not understand yet. While it's based on GPL, itself it was licenced as a Creative Commons. Licence statements are gone by now on thinkgos.com, while there's no info at all at walmart or everex.

[2late2die Posted Nov 14th 2007 9:50AM]

From what I hear about Ubuntu, if anything, the installing process should be easier for noobs - go to add programs and look for what you need - no need to google and download stuff, no need to deal with rar'd files (noobs don't know it's better than zip) and no worrying about malware and spyware as well. As for installing some windows apps they already have - well as somebody pointed out, most of those folks probably not gonna be doing that, they just want to boot and surf the web for their youtube/porn fix, and maybe make the occasional doc.