Posted on 11/05/2007 12:19:20 PM PST by Red Badger
Linux, the free operating system that's a perpetual underdog in the desktop market, will get another chance this holiday season at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The chain was taking orders online Wednesday for a computer called the "Green gPC" that is made by Everex of Taiwan, costs $199 and runs Linux. It will be available in about 600 stores, as well as online, Wal-Mart said. A comparable Everex PC that comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and more memory costs $99 more, or $298, partly because the manufacturer has to pay Microsoft Corp. for a software license. Both computers come with keyboard, mouse, and speakers, but no monitor.
Linux is maintained and developed by individuals and companies around the world volunteering on an "open source" basis, meaning that everyone has access to the software's blueprints.
It is in widespread use in server computers, particularly servers that host Web sites. But it hasn't yet made a dent in the desktop market. Surveys usually put its share of that market around 1 percent, far behind Windows and Apple Inc.'s OS X.
Wal-Mart started selling Linux computers at its online store in 2002, at prices as low as $199. Computers from several manufacturers were available for several years, but are now gone from the inventory.
The variant of Linux on the gPC is called gOS and is derived from the popular Ubuntu variant. It's heavily oriented toward Google's Web sites and online applications, like YouTube, Gmail and the company's word processing program, all of which can be used only when the computer is connected to a broadband line. The PC comes with a dialup modem, but gOS doesn't support it. So most users likely will get online other ways.
Google's push into desktop applications is relatively new, and gOS, the Los Angeles-based startup behind the software, sees it as crucial in overcoming consumers' reluctance to leave the familiar Windows environment.
"We feel the timing is right for open source because of that," said gOS founder David Liu. The company has fewer than 10 people on it staff but gets help from volunteers in the Linux community.
Whether value-minded shoppers who would be enticed by a $199 PC will also be interested in making the jump to Linux remains to be seen. The operating system isn't known for ease of use and mainly attracts the tech-savvy.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said it is stocking the computer in about one in eight stores to test the demand for an open-source product.
The gPC has a low-end processor from VIA Technologies, plus 512 megabytes of internal memory, an 80-gigabyte hard drive and a combination DVD drive and CD burner.
Everex says the processor is very energy efficient, meriting the "Green" part of the name.
Are they the ones who make “EMachines”?...........
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Explain tagline please.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_%28video_game%29
and also:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RthZgszykLs
^_^
Also, nice homepage. Pat Benatar is nothing to be ashamed of. XD
I’ll tell you this: I switched, cold turkey, from years of XP to Kubuntu. I don’t know linux from a hole in the wall. I function beautifully in Kubuntu. I use Adept to install new programs so I don’t have to find repositories or use command lines (unless I want to). Kubuntu is made for the masses of non-nerds.
Same here. It was 1984 and I had just taken delivery of an XT clone with two 5-1/4" floppy drives and a 20 meg hard drive and an Epson near letter quality dot-matrix printer. I clearly remember the feeling of sitting at my desk after setting it up knowing that I would never need to buy another piece of computer equipment.
She actually had to use Knoppix for a few days a couple of years ago when there was an HD problem on hers and I wasn't available to work on it. It didn't skip a beat.
With all the XP boxes I support at work, the endless cycles of restarts is so frustrating sometimes. A policy where I am at is that no one can know anybody else's password. That is great if the user doesn't disappear for varying amounts of time at random intervals.
Linux is wonderful in that it rarely, if ever, needs a restart during normal use. Something else I wish MS had (that worked) as an equivalent would be the "X-Kill" to stop crashed programs.
My boss is a MCP (I used to be, long story) and I freaked that person out with my live CD's running on presumed dead Windows boxes. I had to fill out a form to have them around officially and gladly did. I welcome anyone around to load them up and check them out.
With all of the programming minds where I am at, building some kind of custom Linux based image to run things day to day, would solve a lot of problems in terms of reliabiilty.
I have learned to really hate Active Directory in the past few months. Mysterious glitches, random rejections of passwords, profile corruption, and the sheer overhead of AD is 95% of my typical support effort.
Welcome to the new millennium. First off, this so called pc is a recipe for failure. It’s just a google money making ad harvesting gimmick...just like their so called phone.
But, to my point. To find, install, and run new software on an Ubuntu, Mandrake, Red Hat, Mepis, Minix, Debian, SuSe, etc, etc, etc, distro, you need to...
1. Click on your package manager
2. Select the software to install
3. Click Apply.
4. Click on the Panel (Menu) and click on the software you just installed to run it.
It really is that simple. The other night I had my wife, who hasn’t ever seen a Linux machine, can’t even spell geek, install Ubuntu. The rules were...she couldn’t ask any questions at all.
37 minutes later, she had a fully functioning Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty distro up and running and surfing the net, and playing cd’s. And it does come ready to work or play.
Download an iso, and burn it, then give it a whirl by running it “live” from the cd, you might be surprised. :)
All of the current distro’s auto setup and connect.
Download and try the cd LIVE version, you’ll be surprised.
I thought Linux was open source software and hence free... ?
E-Machines was bought by Gateway a few years ago. A few months ago, Acer bought Gateway.
VIA Processor.
My 1983 vintage Xenix system still runs fine. The UUCP connectivity isn't nearly as attractive today. Trying to keep the smart UUCP database to compute the ideal "bang path" from end to end was a bit tiresome too. It was certainly more convenient than FIDO BBS or FIDOnet. I ported Phil Karn's "Net" TCP/IP software and put that Xenix node on the internet in 1985 using a SLIP link. That was a big improvement. Still, small potatoes compared to what we have now.
Heck, just buy a second-hand one from Ebay or something for $75 or $100 and download it yourself.
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