User login
Site Search
Online users
- Paul H
- Nathaniel Tolbert
- clok1966
Dirt Cheap GNU/Linux PCs
There's some buzz at some of my other blog haunts about two dirt cheap GNU/Linux PCs: Wal-Mart's Everex TC2502 Green PC and the XO Laptop. This last option is especially interesting: buy a laptop for $400 and you get a laptop and "give one" to a needy child in a developing country--AND can deduct $200 of that from your taxes. I am strongly tempted to invest some money in one or both of these, if just to have one of these units to play around with. The Everex actually looks pretty impressive under the hood, and runs a special flavor of Ubuntu called gOS.
It seems to me that if you've had any desire whatsoever to try Linux on a dedicated machine, now is the time to spring. Heck, if nothing else you could buy one for a "basic needs" family member for Christmas. As I've said many times on this site, I doubt the bulk of casual computer users will even notice it's not Windows or Mac. The XO Laptop would be perfect for kids, and you wouldn't have to worry about buying a monitor.
Comments
I just recently picked up a used 60GB PS3 for a good deal. Even the new 40GB is only $399 retail. The PS3 has a built-in utility to partition the hard drive (in fact, it's very easy to add your own of almost any size - it takes standard 2.5" hard drives) for multiple operating systems, meaning the PS3's own and various versions of Linux (Yellow Hat I believe is the most popular). It's not of special interest to me right now to do, so I dedicated the entire 60GB to the PS3 itself, but it's certainly an intriguing option. The PS3 takes just about any USB mouse and keyboard, has built-in wireless and, depending upon model, two to four USB ports, and memory card reader ports. That's certainly something to consider if you want to play around with Linux for cheap. Of course, you'd need some type of hi-def TV (720p minimum) to get proper benefit from it, but it's certainly a viable and very different alternative with added benefit of being a current generation console that also plays PS2 and PS1 games (and interacts nicely with the PSP if you own of those too, as well as with the latest update plays nicely with pulling media from a Windows Media Center or Windows Vista PC on the same network).
===================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
===================================
So Bill, what made you decide to go out and get a ps3? Was it the ps2 backwardscompatibility that still is present in the 60Gb model? Or was it the multimedia features? Surely it can't be that you actually have found a killer-app or the PS3?
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
So Bill, what made you decide to go out and get a ps3? Was it the ps2 backwardscompatibility that still is present in the 60Gb model? Or was it the multimedia features? Surely it can't be that you actually have found a killer-app or the PS3?
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
Well, I put my existing PS2 downstairs, where it will serve as a secondary machine (like the Xbox 1 in our bedroom), as well as a cardio machine (all the dance dance and eye toy stuff is on it), as well as a dual Gun Con 2 Time Crisis 3 system (which works perfectly, since it's a regular tube TV, unlike the projection it was original on).
It was a combination of price, the possibility of finangling my way into the 5 Blu Ray DVD offer through the back door (long shot, since it was bought through eBay), and the fact that I was concerned about the availability of the 60GB models going forward (the value may increase, since it's the SAME model and you can always put any hard drive in going forward if for some reason 60GB was "too small"), since that provides almost 100% backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 titles, with full upscaling (which makes playing on a widescreen TV so much more pleasant--something I give the Wii major negatives for since I constantly have to manually switch between widescreen and 4:3 depending upon what I'm playing).
My original plan was always to get a PS3 for this Christmas, but I backed off when I got my Wii last month for my birthday. Nevertheless, it was one of those purchases that just moved me at this time. It still counts as my main Christmas gift.
===================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
===================================
Back on subject of Matt pointing out these cheap PC's on offer. There is one review below the article that says something about Wine/Cedega and the PC on offer being a fast PC. Well I think not necessarily as the CPU is cheap but slow. Here's
a French article comparing the C7 to a PIII apart from being a 'carbon free cpu' the C7-D does feature nothing substantially different from an Intel or AMD CPU...it is very much like the C3 and offers the same types of flaws that the C3 predecessor had: mainly a slow FPU (which does bring back memories like old AMD-K6 days). Linux and multi media applications benefit from a fast FPU so a computer featuring this type of CPU will not fly in the multimedia world and will give a poorer performance - also in Linux. So according to this article the C7 compares to a good pentium III which is very capable of DivX/mp3 playback, decoding HD material might prove to be another thing though. But it would still be a nice little machine to have in my opinion.
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
Not sure I understand all the technical language in that, Mark! Can you explain for the rest of us?
I remember when I first started hearing about the XO it was supposed to be $100 and have a wind-up crank so you didn't need electricity to operate it. Guess that plan got shut down. I wonder how feasible solar power would be for something like this? as I understand, it doesn't have a hard drive (only flash memory).
I was talking about the Everex PC, in 'normal tongue' it basically has a CPU with a slow FPU and can be compared to older pentium III like cpu's in terms of performance. Don't expect it to be able to compete with Pentium IV or Duocore machines at all. Good enough for browsing and office but nothing more elaborate I think....
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
The C7 is actually a pile of ..... VIA dont have any real cpu engineers, or not enough capable of doing much, the C7 is a very obsolete design. I do like the fact it has random + crypto built in. Its a micro evolution of their old c5/c3 design.
-- Stu --
"As I've said many times on this site, I doubt the bulk of casual computer users will even notice it's not Windows or Mac." ... that's probably true Matt! Things seem to be progressing pretty fast now and if the relative rate of change keeps up for a few more years I think we may just witness significant adoption of cheap yet powerful Linux computers (from the pocket-sized to the full desktop experience).
You may also want to add these two machines to the growing list of potentially mainstream Linux based personal computers: the Asus Eee PC and the Nokia N810
P.S. Bill, well said. The PS3 can function as a personal computer ("Windows PC replacement") in many cases.
P.P.S. Apparently the Everex gPC TC2502 sold out at Wal-Mart within a few short days.
---------------
"Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it."
"You must not give the world what it asks for, but what it needs."
-- Dijkstra
For those interested, Buy.com has the ASUS Eee PC 7" Widescreen Notebook - 512MB, 4GB Flash Storage, Intel Mobile Chipset - Galaxy Black, for $349.99 with free shipping. Not bad for a Linux ultra-portable, through for about $100 more, you can get a much more full-featured notebook (though not as small)...
===================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
===================================
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2223889,00.asp
===================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
===================================