this is a subsidized machine, Microtel (the OEM who is suppling walmart) is not making any money (and likely, losing money). chances are that this won't last...remember when the sub-$500 PC all the rage back in the late 90s?
oh, and this $200 PC doesn't even come with a modem. yet they try to tell us, "90% of what people do is browse, email, and light word processing," so this is the perfect and perfectly priced machine for that. well, i guess 1 out of 3 ain't bad, right? uh huh.
also, walmart is selling "thousands" of these per month. Thousands! and they only sell it from walmart's website. it is likely that 95% of the people buying these boxes are the religious msft-haters. fortunately relatively few consumers are buying this, cuz if they did, they'd be in for a rude surprise the first time they try to install a video game -- because the sad fact is that most consumers are ignorant and won't understand that they are buying a Linux PC that is incompatible with most other sotware out there.
i do believe that msft has problems with free OSS software, but that is going to be on the enterprise and international government levels, not a few thousand PCs sold at walmart.com. |
