Wal-Mart debuts $498 Linux laptop
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The computer, dubbed Balance, comes loaded with the Linspire operating system and the OpenOffice.org office suite, the companies said.
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The retailer trots out a bargain portable PC that packs Wi-Fi. Is it getting ready for a laptop push for the holidays?
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Another $400, 2-lb. Linux-based mini-laptop will arrive in U.S. Wal-Mart stores by the end of this month.
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Novell today announced the November availability of SuSE Linux Professional 9.2, targeted at both unfamiliar users and open source enthusiasts, and compatible with standard 32-bit PC processors as well as AMD Athlon 64 and Intel Extended Memory 64
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Wal-Mart, the world largest supermarket chain, is offering a laptop for only $498 (about Rs 21,000) during the festive season in the United States!
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Eee by gum UK PC maker Elonex will next week launch an offensive against Asus' elfin Eee PC by offering a compact Linux laptop for just Â£99 ($193/â¬132).â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Wal-Mart opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a $298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends -- open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of "bloatware." The Everex Impact GC3502 uses Microsoft's Windows Vista OS but substitutes the OpenOffice.org 2.2 version of word processing and spreadsheet tools for the traditional Microsoft Office variety. The computer runs on a 1.5GHz C7-D processor from Via Technologies, a chip that meets lead-free environmental regulations and saves energy with low wattage demands. The sales price does not include a monitor but is still lower than comparable packages sold on Wal-mart's Web site, such as an HP Compaq Presario, an Acer America AcerPower FH Minitower, and a Dell Dimension desktop. PC vendors usually compete for customers by slashing prices during the eight-week back-to-school season, stretching from mid-July to mid-September. But Everex also hopes to attract buyers by avoiding the free "trial software" that annoys many users, according to Eugene Chang, a product manager at Everex, of Fremont, California. Dell followed a similar strategy on July 10 when itÂ withheld bloatwareÂ from its newÂ Vostro line of PCsÂ for small business users after a long campaign by bloggers and Dell customers against common practice by PC vendors of loading unrequested software onto new computers. Software companies fund the effort as a way to find new users. Although those features are popular, they could backfire on Everex because most U.S. consumers are not yet familiar with Via processors or OpenOffice software, one analyst said. "It's not surprising that Wal-Mart, of all retailers, will sell the $298 Everex desktop; it's a good marriage with their biggest audience -- budget buyers," said Toni DuBoise, a senior analyst with Current Analysis West. "But it has a couple of problems; one is that it uses a Via processor, which is almost unknown to U.S. consumers. And it runs at just 1.5 GHz, so it's unknown how it will handle Microsoft Vista," she said. "And running OpenOffice is kind of a unique tactic. It's anti-Microsoft as Microsoft obviously owns the market for productivity software. So users may have some concerns about compatibility."
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A laptop under $100 could reach desks if a new venture formed by the former&#160;CTO of One Laptop Per Child, Mary Lou Jepsen, can deliver on its promises.A &quot;spin-out&quot; from OLPC, the company, Pixel Qi is looking to create a $75 laptop and trying to advance low-cost computers and power-efficient laptops, mobile phones, and other consumer electronics that are sunlight readable, Jepsen wrote on the company&#39;s Web site.Jepsen left OLPC two weeks ago to commercialize technologies she invented with OLPC, she said in an e-mail to the IDG News Service at the time. A patent lists Jepsen as one of the inventors of a display system optimized for low-power operation.&quot;Spinning out from OLPC enables the development of a new machine, beyond the XO [laptop], while leveraging a larger market for new technologies,&quot; Jepsen wrote.There is a big commercial market for technology spawned by OLPC, Jepsen wrote. Prices for next-generation hardware can be brought down by allowing multiple uses of key technology advances, she wrote.The company will continue to work with OLPC by providing products at cost, and it will sell devices at a profit to commercial organizations.A similar promise to introduce a low-cost laptop came from OLPC, when it launched the $100 XO laptop in 2005. Since then, the effort has been afflicted by production delays and rising costs, which caused the laptop&#39;s estimated price to rise to $200. It is now beset by waning orders and competition from commercial vendors that threaten to sideline the nonprofit effort.As CTO, Jepsen was responsible for hardware development for the rugged and power-saving XO laptop, designed for use by children in developing countries. Though the laptop has struggled to find buyers, it has been praised for its environmentally friendly design and innovative display, hardware and networking features.Her departure from OLPC spawned a debate, with critics charging that Jepsen was taking advantage of OLPC&#39;s nonprofit inventions for personal gains, but supporters shot back, saying it was the right time for her to leave a sinking ship.Jepsen, who is attending the&#160;International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was not available for comment.
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Dell Inc.  said on Friday it would sell notebook computers at more than 580 of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s  Sam's Club outlets for $899 each starting next week, its latest move to sell computers in retail chains.
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com December 15, 2004, 2:07 PM PT. Sales of new and used PCs running the Linux operating system will reach $10 billion by 2008, market researcher IDC predicted Wednesday.
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In the news release, "Dell Computers to Arrive at Wal-Mart  This Weekend," issued earlier today by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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The so-called $100 laptop that's being designed
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There&#39;s a new laptop available and it&#39;s cheap, really cheap. Walmart.com and Linspire on Monday introduced a Linux-based laptop priced at $498.
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Basing a laptop on open source operating system and applications software, Wal-Mart and Linspire said Monday they have broken the $500 price barrier with their $498 Balance laptop.
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Look for more consumer electronics products and services from the PC behemoth. Also: SuSE Linux for Dell servers.
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Asustek Computer&#39;s Linux-based Eee PC laptop will soon be on sale in North America and Europe, and the company plans to offer a version running Windows XP by the end of the year.The Eee PC is a&#160;low-cost laptop&#160;designed primarily for children and emerging markets such as India. It weighs less than a kilogram, has a 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen and can connect to the Internet wirelessly. The&#160;first version went on sale earlier this month&#160;in Asia, including in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where it&#39;s priced at about NT$11,100 (US$340)On Nov. 1 the Eee PC will go on sale at stores in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Toronto, and also through e-commerce Web sites in North America, Asustek officials said Tuesday. It will then be rolled out gradually in Europe, starting in Germany on Nov. 9. Major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, will follow in mid-November.The first Eee PCs run a Linux operating system from Xandros. By the end of the year, Asustek will also offer versions running Microsoft&#39;s Windows XP.Pricing for the laptops in Europe and North America hasn&#39;t been announced. In Taiwan, the price difference between the XP and Linux versions will be about NT$1,000, Asustek said in a statement.Asustek has shipped about 100,000 Eee PCs so far, and by the end of the year it&#39;s targeting 400,000, said Jerry Shen, Asustek&#39;s president, at an investor conference Tuesday in Taiwan. Next year it expects to ship 3.8 million of the laptops.&quot;We&#39;re in talks with a few governments and we have already confirmed orders for 1 million units next year,&quot; said Sunny Han, global marketing director.Asustek reaffirmed its commitment to push the price of the Linux-based Eee PC down to US$199, nearly the same price as the XO laptop developed by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project. OLPC is pricing the laptops at $200, according to its Givemany and Laptopgiving donor programs.One of the biggest costs for the Eee PC is taxes, Shen said. VAT (value added tax) and other taxes have a big impact on price. Governments interested in buying Eee PCs for education could get a better price by waiving such taxes, he said. An Eee PC sold to a government without taxes factored in would cost around $199, while the price increases to about $300 with taxes.The configuration of the laptops also affects the price, with the amount of flash memory and DRAM (dynamic RAM), the camera and battery having the biggest influence, he said. The price of the kind of flash memory Asustek is using for data storage in the Eee PCs has gone up recently.Earlier this month, Asustek announced four Eee PC laptop configurations it planned to sell in stores and online, all running Linux software.The least expensive was the &quot;Surf&quot; with a 2GB flash memory drive and 256MB of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM, to retail for NT$7,999 when it comes out around the end of November. Another version of the Surf included a 4GB flash drive and 512MB of DDR2 DRAM, and will cost NT$9,999 when it comes out in mid-November. Both laptops have an Intel microprocessor.Two higher-priced Eee PCs were also launched. The NT$11,100 version included a built-in camera and speakers, and can carry out simple voice commands such as &quot;computer, access the Internet,&quot; or &quot;computer, make a phone call.&quot; It contains a 900MHz Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB of DDR2 DRAM and a 4GB flash drive. The other laptop, at NT$13,888 and due out at the end of November, carries an 8GB flash drive and 1GB of DDR2 DRAM in addition to features similar to the NT$11,100 version.At the launch ceremony, Asustek also showed off one Eee PC running Microsoft Windows XP Professional, version 2002, Service Pack 2. The hardware on board was the same as for the NT$11,100 Linux-based Eee PC. The Windows XP-Eee PC included Office 2003 versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
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Everex's TC2502 gPC is the first mass-market $200 desktop computer, featuring a custom distribution of Ubuntu Linux and headed for selected Wal-Mart stores.