San Francisco Chronicle: Testing Wal-Mart's $200 PC

[ Thanks to Todd Kirby for this link. ]

"Back in 1996, Wal-Mart made headlines by marketing the first 'sub-$1,000' PC. Now, the megachain is again breaking new ground in PC pricing, this time with a model it sells online for less than $200.

"To hit that price point, Wal-Mart and its manufacturing partner, Microtel, had to do more than scrimp on hardware. They also had to finesse the most expensive single item in most PCs: the license fee for Microsoft's Windows operating system.

"To do so, they turned to Linux, the free alternative OS developed cooperatively by programmers around the world. Specifically, they adopted Lindows, a Linux-based environment that's supposed to be simple enough for most consumers to use and even enjoy..."

Complete Story

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• AP: New $199 PC Doesn't Do Windows; It Doesn't Do a Lot of Things(Oct 02, 2002)
• MSNBC: The World's First AOL Computer?(Sep 27, 2002)
• OSNews: A Look Into LindowsOS 2.0(Sep 25, 2002)