Almost the Google PC at Walmart for $199

greggh · Post by **greggh** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:23 pm

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9807133-7.html

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=7754614

http://www.thinkgos.com/index.html

It's called the gPC and is running an Ubuntu variant called gOS. It comes set up with google apps on the desktop. But if you ask Everex the "g" stands for "green" not google.

The gPC runs a 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor and ships with 512MB of RAM and and 80GB hard drive. The operating system is gOS, from a new company of the same name. It's a version of Ubuntu 7.10 with the Enlightenment window manager. The $198 price tag does not include a monitor. But it does include 24/7 800-number tech support.

Post by **Patrick** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:04 pm

Kinda looks like one of the betas of KDE 4?

greggh · Post by **greggh** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:24 pm

Patrick wrote:Kinda looks like one of the betas of KDE 4?

It's actually running Enlightenment.

schotty · Post by **schotty** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:49 pm

nice looking!

davijordan · Post by **davijordan** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:00 pm

looks like a mac. they do not have them in oru local stores yet. rumor has it that most of the box is air and you could put the innards in a much smaller case. I am glad I did not get a koolu now.

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:59 am

Very interesting. I wonder why they just rebranded an Ubuntu 7.10 distro, instead of just calling it Ubuntu. Apparently they are trying to distance themselves from being associated with Linux.

2 years ago I bought an Everex RX2500 which was their small form factor pc on close out for $298. It has been a nice pc and has run several flavors of Linux without issue especially after putting in an Nvidia AGP card in place of the onboard SIS graphics. Currently running Foresight on there.

A couple of thoughts. I like the price, but I don't care for the size of the box. It is more than likely a MiniITX board with the VIA cpu on it. The case is as big as a midsize tower. 23" deep x23" high x11" wide. So it is not in as nice a package as the koolu or the units from LSTP guys that were on the show last night. To buy a smaller case, now you are at the price of most of these other units it you would build a Mini-ITX yourself.

One other thing. Don't expect great things from customer support from Everex, my experiences have not been great.

This is neat though, and it has me thinking about a Wal-Mart run.

Post by **Patrick** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:04 pm

mowestusa wrote:This is neat though, and it has me thinking about a Wal-Mart run.

I'm going with a bunch of my co-workers to see if we can snag some of those $99 HD-DVD Toshiba DVD players that are on sale tommorow:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/01/tosh ... -wal-mart/

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:27 pm

Will I be alone in my boycott of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray because of their DRM schemes?

karst · Post by **karst** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:29 pm

Vogateer wrote:Will I be alone in my boycott of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray because of their DRM schemes?

Nope.

well sort of I guess. Mine is not really a boycott due to DRM, more a side effect that I don't think either format is of any longterm importance.

They are both filler technologies for movie distribution and I'm betting on them only being around till bandwidth at the curb is sufficient for HD content downloads.

davijordan · Post by **davijordan** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:32 pm

I will not be getting one but I saw this article:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/more-%2499-h ... 317909.php

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:59 am

Vogateer wrote:Will I be alone in my boycott of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray because of their DRM schemes?

I boycott wallmart, so I won't be getting one of those ones. I watch hardly anything on my main TVs any more - more often I watch movies on my lappy, honestly, so I doubt I'll be getting a set-top player for a long time. I also "boycott" technology I can't use on my computer, so I won't be getting anything for any of my boxes anytime soon.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 2:59 pm

Snarkout wrote:I watch hardly anything on my main TVs any more - more often I watch movies on my lappy, honestly, so I doubt I'll be getting a set-top player for a long time. I also "boycott" technology I can't use on my computer, so I won't be getting anything for any of my boxes anytime soon.

Feel the same way about technologies I can't use on my computer, though I have to admit my wife and I do average about an hour of TV a night on weekdays, and a movie on Friday, which is actually more than I think we should be watching. Much as I'd like to have the History Channel available, I'm not going to pay the rates Cable companies ask for to get it.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 3:29 pm

Don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-tv particularly. I have two boys - a 1 year old and a 4 year old, two dogs, and a fairly busy schedule. I just end up not watching much actual "TV" - even the things I want to. I'll let my 4 y/o watch Naruto, or whatever, but I don't feel right about watching, say, CSI while he's around. I probably have 50 hours of stuff on the DVR, none of it educational. I tend to watch a lot of cartoons (anime, really) and kids movies with my 4 year old, and I watch a lot of CBT stuff on my own time. Sometimes I imagine a life like some folks I know who have a 9-5 job w/o an "on call" aspect, no school to go to, no children or real responsibilities, etc. I imagine it must be nice to have all that free time. So, if anything I'm envious of the folks who have time to sit in front of the tube all evening, not judgemental.