[Sussex] Taking the battle to the big boys

[Tony Dart]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Teale" <Geoff.Teale at claybrook.co.uk>
> Chaps,
>
> There is talk that the bundle may be duplicated in Asda stores in the UK -
> at this price point it could well trigger a home computing revolution in
the
> way the launch of the Sinclair, BBC and Commodore machines did in the
early
> 1980's.

Depends on the bundle - PC World sold a cheap PC with Linux (Patriot) a few
months ago with a very cut-down distro that seemed to have RedHat 6 beneath
it. Pretty useless for the office (the network did not work, and the roar of
the CD has to be heard to be believed), SVGA only so no good for games (and
not even a PCI slot for upgrading) and the surround sound advertised was not
implemented. Also very little memory, so not easy to upgrade the OS.

But then again, perhaps Walmart have got it right.

Still, bit optomistic to think people will rush to the stores as they did in
the eighties. Those of us who can remember those days will remember that
computers were new and games were all the rage. What can Linux offer apart
from price? A comparison with Amstrad would perhaps be more apposite.

Now a killer app, based say on ADSL, with built-in hardware *might* just
tempt the masses ...
>
> We wait with baited breath...

Zenism notwithstanding, I'll stick to my Colegate!

Cheers

Tony