“In a move that appears to be a coup for Michael Robertson et al, Wal-Mart’s online store is offering eight different Microtel PCs with LindowsOS included. The computers sell for USD$299 to $599 and ship in one to seven days.” Read the story at NewsForge. Our Take: I noticed that they offer an AthlonXP system, similar to the one we tested a few days back. In order to use the X11 with its SavagePRO+ DDR graphics card, they needed to use a third party driver. The driver works, but it still has limitations.
Wal-Mart Shipping PCs with Lindows Pre-installed
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’m no lindows fan, but It’s nice to see two large companys (Wal*Mart and Microtel) supporting us linux users. Plus it’s sort of a hangnail for our friends over at Microsoft
$299 is very cheap and so are the other units they sell. By offering such an inexpensive unit they give users a relatively low-risk means to make the jump from windblows to lindows (linux). I think this could be reasonably popular to the frugal as well as those looking for a second or third PC in their house.
The low price actually gives users an incentive to make the switch. In addition, the preinstall makes it easy to try linux. My bet is there are a lot of people out there that would rather pay 299 or 399 for a PC then install an OS on their hard drive.
I hate the Savage cards, but my wife’s system has one of these cards in it and I was able to get it to work without third party drivers.
By the way, are you sure they were third party and not OEM drivers?
I don’t think a few hundred dollars difference is going to changes people’s computing habits. Lindows has a tough job ahead. Goodluck to them.
WalMart suggests you buy from them a 15″ monitor that can only do 1024×768 at 60 Hz (recommended is 800×600) for $119 plus shipping.
I would recommend (if you just want a monitor at the cheapest price possible that has some good features) this CTX one:
http://osnews.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=393444/p…
It costs around $100, it is a 17″, it is a brand, and it can do 1280×1024 at 66 Hz. Recommended resolution would be 1152×768 at 76 Hz. Not bad for a $100.
Manufacturer link:
http://www.ctxintl.com/products/vl700.htm
Never thought about that, I have a friend that works for Microsoft and he sent me Windows XP Pro therefore costing me no money. But if you were to go out and purchase the full version it would cost $299 US, but for that same price you can get an entire pc preloaded with an alternate OS. Very interesting to say the least, I’ve been looking at purchasing a pc for server purposes and this deal seems somewhat hard to pass up, but that lindows will have to go as it may? be fine for a desktop but not a server.
> I was able to get it to work without third party drivers.
Oh, please read our review on the athlonxp system and then post. There are about 15 different Savage revisions. Just because they all share the name “savage” doens’t mean they are the same hardware. Not all work with the current XFree drivers. You need to use that third party driver made by Tim to get the specific “SavagePRO+ 256 DDR” chipset to work with Linux.
I haven’t used Lindows (although Michael Robertson keeps sending me emails to do so), but assuming the performance is as good as my Debian machine, I think this will be great for people. I have two of the same kind of machine and Linux runs circles around Windows on the same hardware.
I think people will really like not having to wait around for things to happen. I also think they will like not rebooting everytime they install or update something (not to mention the involuntary reboots). I realize that Linux has a steep learning curve, but from I’ve seen Lindows is doing everything possible to minimize it.
As a long time Linux user, I think all the marketing points of Lindows are trite. However, they are just the sort of thing a new or fed-up Windows user wants to hear. I think this cooperation with WalMart is a very smart thing on the part of Lindows. I didn’t think Lindows would last very long, but this might give them a chance. If Be would have tried something like this a long time ago, perhaps BeOS wouldn’t be dead (I know, there are BeLike OSs being worked on, but they aren’t BeOS. I also know that many of you still run BeOS, but CPM still runs too if I install it).
I don’t mean to argue Eugenia, but I do have that same chipset on a VIA chipset motherboard. I did have to tweak some things, but I was able to make it work.
I also had problems with it where OpenOffice/StarOffice and some other programs would cause it to freeze the system. I was able to get around that with an environment variable. My wife is currently doing work that requires Japanese Windows 2000, but as soon as she’s done and we reload Linux I’ll even list the steps I took to make it work for you if you would like.
I also know that many of you still run BeOS, but CPM still runs too if I install it)
Even the most anti-BeOS person would have to admit that it’s at least infinitely more useful than CP/M in this day and age.
Not worth the time to load up the OS even. Just get the computer too.
On the whole, I would see this as a good thing, if Lindows was a signed-off, quality assured, released product. I’m kind of troubled by the fact that alpha-level software is being released to the mostly unsuspecting public. Lindows.com still lists its current releases as “Sneak Previews”, and distinguishes them even from betas in places on their site. From their own FAQ, “We do not recommend that you run the LindowsOS Sneak Preview on a production machine” and “If you are only interested in looking at LindowsOS when it is finished and ‘useable’, you should probably wait for the final release.”
Now true, the order page states that there may be incompatibilities, but it also states that it will run most Windows programs. Are they rolling the dice and taking their chances that the typical Wal-Mart consumer will only run common Windows applications, and not do anything “weird?” They’re not only selling these computers to us (the geek archetype), but also to the less-literate who are looking for a cheap computer to get on the Internet, and wouldn’t know Windows from Linux anyway. The perfect way to make them run back to Microsoft in droves is to force them to deal with buggy, alpha software. Consumers don’t mind inexpensive, but they do mind cheap.
(These comments come merely from reviews I have read about Lindows; I have no direct experience with it. I’m against spending $100 for alpha-level software as well.)
>Lindows.com still lists its current releases as “Sneak Previews”, and distinguishes them even from betas in places on their site.
On the other hand, this is true mostly for the software written by the Lindows people, like the Click-n-Run thingie, and some other utils and changes they have made. In the vast majority of the OS, it is just a Linux with XFree and KDE in it and the rest of the libs. And that bigger part would be as stable as in any other distro…
Even the most anti-BeOS person would have to admit that it’s at least infinitely more useful than CP/M in this day and age.
While this statement is true, it is not what I said nor implied I don’t think.
Let me clarify. I don’t hate BeOS at all. I really like it in fact. My sentiment is I wish BeOS had done something like Lindows has with a retail company as large as WalMart. If they had, perhaps I would be writting this post from BeOS 6 or later.
Everytime someone says something about BeOS’s demise, however, there are 100 comments saying, “what about OpenBeOS, etc.”, or, “Nope, I just checked and it still runs.” I simply wanted to avoid those posts.
As for CPM being comparable to BeOS performance or feature wise, no comparison is possible. However, they are both dead products that can still be installed and run. This attribute they share. I was just trying to invalidate the “it installs” argument before it started so we could avoid a bunch of “BeOS isn’t dead” flame posts when the topic at hand is WalMart selling Lindows computers.
…of the $299 boxes for Linux/BSD servers to play with.
It’s crazy, with commodity hardware you can build a whole network to experiment with for under a thousand dollars these days.
You can practice securing and penetrating your own network–legally–on private RFC 1918 addresses…for pocket change!
That $299 system is pretty sweet for the price, I got to say. Have you noticed though that it comes without a… floppy drive?
Personally, I would prefer a slower CD-ROM, around 32x speed, but be able to have a floppy drive, rather than not having it at all (as a geek, I play a lot with my machines and OSes, I need the “power” of the floppy)…
I understand that probably took it off, in order to meet that ridiculously low price…
Walmart is selling them as compatible with Windows software.
Lindows are no longer developing the Windows application compatibility layer, concentrating on the Click and Run delivery of linux apps.
Walmarts ad is either an outdated product announcement – or misleading.
“I also think they will like not rebooting everytime they install or update something”
Yeah, I’m sure this just pisses Joe user off, doesn’t it?
“(not to mention the involuntary reboots).”
And Linux is too hard to use because I have to compile every app I install
That $299 system is pretty sweet for the price, I got to say. Have you noticed though that it comes without a… floppy drive?
Personally, I would prefer a slower CD-ROM, around 32x speed, but be able to have a floppy drive, rather than not having it at all (as a geek, I play a lot with my machines and OSes, I need the “power” of the floppy)…
I understand that probably took it off, in order to meet that ridiculously low price…
A standard Sony FDD drive on Malaysian streets cost $5. So much for cost saving.
Lindows are no longer developing the Windows application compatibility layer, concentrating on the Click and Run delivery of linux apps.
Oh, they realize it is impossible? Even if they can do it, they would be violating a few patents in the process…
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It troubles me that Microtel is loading alpha software on their machines…. I mean, how often to you see a OEM bundling a alpha of Windows?
Besides, is there prove to the claim that Lindows can run most Windows apps? All the reviews I have read, it has bunch of apps that can’t be install. Plus, even they admit they are only building support for business apps, which means the average Joe won’t be able to run the latest games, nor able to install educational software, or multimedia apps. Plus, it is illegal to use the latest Microsoft apps written for Windows on a non-Windows machine.
I think Microtel would be much better off not installing another distro, or installing a distro that could live up to its claims. Or they could even make their own version of Linux, easy to use, made for Microtel hardware, and not in any way trying to clone Windows (except maybe for a few feature ideas).
linux isn’t a gaming os anyways.
If thescreenshots at Lindows .com are to be believed, as it is it can run SOME titles.. but office apps looked bloody ugly.. No Viruscheckers but windows email viruses were supported … most you’d need a windows install on the same box and to copy files across as it wont support many installers
i’m more interested in that google box in the banner ad
it looks funny
yes . . . $299 Linux boxes with bad ass Savage video. Thats quality that will be hard to beat! And at WAL-MART no less!
The reputations of the PC hardware being mostly cheap crap, and of Linux being a Windows knock-off/Wanna-be matched with the fine reputation of “Wally World” finest retail outlets will only serve to complement all.
Linux – Wal-Mart – and PC hardware that barely outlasts it warrenty. They are all of the same caliber. So it should all work out. Now if only Radio Shack could sell them too . . .
I love reading OS News – I’m not nearly as technically experienced or knowedgable as the great majority of you, but I learn so much here. I was wondering, regarding the Microtel/Lindows Walmart computers, does anyone know or perhaps even specualate if any of the other Microtel/Lindows offerings at Walmart might run BeOS, some of the Celeron configurations, etc.? Also, does anyone know what if Microtel has a website? There’s a Microtel.com that looks like it has nothing to do with making PC’s, so that isn’t it and I can’t find anything by searching on Google. Thanks!
The Duron and the Celeron machines will boot BeOS out of the box (without the need of any patches), however video won’t work, so you will need to use the VESA driver for video. As for sound, modem and ethernet, no one knows if they will work.
I have the AthlonXP model (which needed kernel patching in order to boot BeOS, as the Pentium4 models also need) and everything works except the sound, but the model I have, has nothing to do with the Duron or the Celeron ones, because the motherboards are different and unfortunately, there are no exact tech specs to see exactly which chipsets are coming with these machines. You could always call MicrotelPC and ask though!
Thanks Eugenia! Yes, that was one of the problems – no info on chipsets, etc. I’ve got a great little BeOS machine- an iPaq desktop, 500 MHz Celeron, 512 MB RAM, only a 4 GB drive, but video, sound and the network card all work without having to do anything (and an Epson 636u scanner!). But, I’m always looking and hoping 🙂
*Keep* that iPaq PC for BeOS to have in the future, and get a brand new one for Windows/Linux.
Oh, I’m hanging on to it, that’s for sure!! 🙂 Thanks again!
LOL, well Eugenia, I ordered the Athalon system – the same one you have – with a 17″ monitor. I have a printer for it. I can’t wait to see Lindows. If it bombs out, I can put Suse 8.0 on it, which is about my speed. Say, do you know if the DDR RAM in these is PC-2100 DDR DIMM, 184-Pin??
Yes. it is PC-2100, 184 pin. My husband bought an extra 512 MB of RAM for my birthday to go on that PC.