Wal-Mart Selling a $498 Linspire Laptop

[GhostDawg]

Linspire has been working for months on a project that will have a profound impacton consumers and on the Linux market - a sub-$500 laptop from a majorretailer. This week, we're proud to announce a new complete laptopavailable immediately for $498, exclusively from Walmart.com.There are no mail-order rebates, no refurbishedequipment, no "only three available at this price," no gimmicks or asteriskswhatsoever and you are not required to buy aprinter or sign up for an ISP -- it's just a low price from an established retailercarrying a laptop pre-installed with Linux. This marks a milestone fordesktop Linux as it moves into the portable market.

Many buyers are likely to be new to Linux, so we've worked with ourpartners to ensure a comprehensive user experience. In each box is aprinted Quick Start Guide which walks users through the initialsetup and some of the basics related to using their Linux computer.Upon first startup, a multimedia tutorial guides the userstep-by-step through every aspect of their new computer in greatdetail.Greeting the user is the best Linux software available from KDE,OpenOffice.org,Mozilla and the many thousands of developers who makeLinux possible.

Our one-click software installation service CNR (click and run) is includedwith every laptop, allowing users to instantly get the fantastic libraryof numerous desktop Linux titles on their computer in a snap.Entertainment programs, business software, productivity titles, and more are all just one click away from the CNR Warehouse. I'm confidentthat anyone using CNR will be impressed with the growing list of Linuxtitles, plus they will get addicted to one-click software downloads andupdates. It's definitely how the world should work!

If you know someone who needs a low-cost laptop for home, school orbusiness, I encourage you to look at the $498 laptop and see if it willsuit your needs. Because it's Linux-based, you won't have to deal withthe barrage of Microsoft Windows security issues, yet it will read andexchange your Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel and Word files with MicrosoftWindows based computers. This is the holiday season, and we do expectthese to be a hot gift idea - so order soon to ensure availability.

A special thanks to Wal-Mart and the many people at Linspire who workedon this project to make it possible!

-- Michael


http://media.linspire.com/walmart/

I would spend a bit more, the specs on that thing indicates a horrid price/performance rating.

Although those C3's are cool, a 1½ hour battery time isn't enough for a laptop, and it's underpowered with only a C3 1GHz and 128megs of ram.

[stryder144]

[quote author=Lovechild link=board=13;threadid=10085;start=0#msg91357 date=1103664043]
I would spend a bit more, the specs on that thing indicates a horrid price/performance rating.

Although those C3's are cool, a 1½ hour battery time isn't enough for a laptop, and it's underpowered with only a C3 1GHz and 128megs of ram.
[/quote]

Agreed. I saw the announcement yesterday or something. The specs are just okay. I don't think it would cost much more to put a dvd-rom drive in it. At least they are trying to bring laptops down in price. Maybe there will be price/performance war on laptops. One can hope.

Cheers

[Schotty]

I dont think that is a poor price. I can end up spending alot more with a student discount for a final product that isnt much more from Dell, that isnt very linux compatible.

[trickster]

[quote author=Schotty link=board=13;threadid=10085;start=0#msg91364 date=1103677777]
I dont think that is a poor price. I can end up spending alot more with a student discount for a final product that isnt much more from Dell, that isnt very linux compatible.
[/quote]
Though Dells are definitely more expensive, I have yet to find a Dell laptop that has not been linux-friendly to me.
Of course, I've only used their latitude series (aimed at the business sector.)

[boblucci]

i'm a firm believer in "You get what you pay for" if you pay 500 bucks for something that should be 1000 to 1500 dollars my guess is it's missing someting and somehow it's not going to measure up

I'd rather save the money and buy a Dell or a brand name laptop then waste 500 dollars on that thing. IMHO.....


EDIT:
i took a look at it on the web site and in the description it doesnt mention anything about a modem, ethernet port, serial port, pcmcia slots , nothing!!! All the other descriptions mention thoes things..........if your thinking of getting one id try and call someone to find out if it has thoes things......

[Stuart]

It has USB, but it doesn't specify anything else.