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$200 WalMart linux box
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=17158		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  mjl [ Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:39 pm ]
Post subject:  $200 WalMart linux box
Hi,

If the ads tell the truth, might make a great dual boot Ubuntu / KnoppMyth box :) And Christmas so near, also Cecils's Feb 16 event....

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

Mike
Author:  cecil [ Fri Nov 02, 2007 3:08 am ]
Post subject: 
Based on the specs, this would have an excellent SD frontend (or even a backend, just add tuner), just add a stylish case. Pity the CN700 doesn't support HD.
Author:  grante [ Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: $200 WalMart linux box
mjl wrote:
If the ads tell the truth, might make a great dual boot Ubuntu
/ KnoppMyth box :) And Christmas so near, also Cecils's Feb 16
event....
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=7754614

That's sad. Yet another computer company with a well-deserved
good reputation goes bankrupt and is bought by some large
anonymous asian corporation so they can stamp the brand-name onto
billions of units of generic, low-quality junk.
Author:  jzigmyth [ Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:25 am ]
Post subject: 
I can't even tell from the specs if it has any PCI slots!?!
Author:  mjl [ Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
Wow, lots of positive notes...
Quote:
Yet another computer company with a well-deserved
good reputation goes bankrupt

Not sure of what company had to die to have a potentially mass produced Linux box available but I don't think it is a bad thing.

The walmart link has been updated so there are more specs but does not mention pci slot(s)

A friend found this link and we believe that this could be the mobo used. http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4842001
and somewhere it did say the video chip was capable of doing hd. I will find out more next week as he bought 2.

Quote:
generic, low-quality junk.
Didn't know VIA was considered junk. Guess I should throw myVIA EPIA MII 10k board away as it is junk?
Quote:
Pity the CN700 doesn't support HD.

I still would like one under my Christmas tree, not everything KM does requires HD..

Mike
Author:  grante [ Sun Nov 11, 2007 10:18 am ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
Quote:
Yet another computer company with a well-deserved
good reputation goes bankrupt

Not sure of what company had to die to have a potentially mass
produced Linux box available but I don't think it is a bad
thing.

Everex is the company that died.
Quote:
Quote:
generic, low-quality junk.

Didn't know VIA was considered junk.

The computer isn't manufactured by VIA. It's manufactured by
some company that bout the Everex brand name after the real
Everex went out of businiess.
Quote:
Guess I should throw myVIA EPIA MII 10k board away as it is junk?

I don't see how that conclusion follows from my statement.
Author:  mjl [ Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:01 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi,
Quote:
Everex brand name
somehow I had tied it to VIA so was crossing apples & with something else.

Thanks for the enlightenment. I guess I need to think outside of the box more.

Mike

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everex Appears to me the real Everex went under in '93
Author:  grante [ Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:18 am ]
Post subject: 
mjl wrote:
Quote:
Everex brand name
somehow I had tied it to VIA so was crossing apples & with something else.
[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everex Appears to me the real
Everex went under in '93


Yup. Back in the day, Everex tape drives were the industry
standard. They also made a variety of other well respected
stuff. I had an Everex "Edge" ISA graphics card that did
_both_ CGA and Hercules graphics.

I should admit that I don't know for a fact that the Everex
computers are junk. I'm basing that assumption on two things:

1. It's made by a large Chinese inudstrual conglomerate and
then stamped with a brand name bought from a bankrupt US
company that was known for high-quality stuff back when they
were still alive. That should always be a warning sign: if
somebody isn't willing to put their own name on a product, then
it's probably crap.

2. It's sold by Wal-Mart. Even if a company used to make good
stuff, Wal-Mart will demand the cost be reduced until the
quality has dropped to the bordering-on-intolerable level. A
while back I saw a very interesting documentary title "The Man
Who Said No to Wal-Mart" about how the CEO of Simplicity
(manufacturer of Snapper lawn mowers) refused to lower his
standards to meet Wal-Mart's demands:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102 ... apper.html
Author:  Too Many Secrets [ Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:34 am ]
Post subject: 
mjl wrote:
Wow, lots of positive notes...
Quote:
Yet another computer company with a well-deserved
good reputation goes bankrupt

Not sure of what company had to die to have a potentially mass produced Linux box available but I don't think it is a bad thing.

The walmart link has been updated so there are more specs but does not mention pci slot(s)

A friend found this link and we believe that this could be the mobo used. http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4842001
and somewhere it did say the video chip was capable of doing hd. I will find out more next week as he bought 2.

Quote:
generic, low-quality junk.
Didn't know VIA was considered junk. Guess I should throw myVIA EPIA MII 10k board away as it is junk?
Quote:
Pity the CN700 doesn't support HD.

I still would like one under my Christmas tree, not everything KM does requires HD..

Mike


any further updates on this? how does KM run on this box? TIA
Author:  mjl [ Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi,

Don't know but it looks promising. So far there hasn't been one within a hundred miles of me.. and I have seen no word from anyone else.

I have played with the gos http://www.thinkgos.com/downloads.html

Mike
Author:  BluesBrian [ Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
It would be really cool if this would work as a KM box... and support the "One Laptop Per Child" project:
http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/
Since there's no hard drive.. and no slots.. these would have to be added by USB. .. even as a wireless front-end... it would be pretty cool! (somehow this got over the "$100 per" vision.. but's it's a pretty durable item! .. no complaints from me!)
Author:  nharris [ Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:29 am ]
Post subject: 
BluesBrian wrote:
It would be really cool if this would work as a KM box... and support the "One Laptop Per Child" project:
http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/
Since there's no hard drive.. and no slots.. these would have to be added by USB. .. even as a wireless front-end... it would be pretty cool! (somehow this got over the "$100 per" vision.. but's it's a pretty durable item! .. no complaints from me!)

I recently ordered one of these through the G1G1 program. The processor in the XO Laptop will require a very simple video stream. I will be trying to transcode some of the kid's cartoons to something playable on the XO. I'll let you know if I'm successful.
Author:  grante [ Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:27 am ]
Post subject: 
nharris wrote:
I recently ordered one of these through the G1G1 program. The
processor in the XO Laptop will require a very simple video
stream.

The Geode chipset that they're using was originally targeted
at set-top boxes and included MPEG decoding acceleration. I
don't know if the MPEG HW decoding was ever supported by Linux
or if that particular feature is still in the chipset that's in
the OLPC.
Author:  Xsecrets [ Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:03 pm ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
I had an Everex "Edge" ISA graphics card that did
_both_ CGA and Hercules graphics.


Wow I don't feel like such an old man anymore. I was afraid I was the only one left on the internet that remembered ISA CGA EGA hercules etc.
:D
Author:  grante [ Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
Xsecrets wrote:
Quote:
I had an Everex "Edge" ISA graphics card that did _both_ CGA
and Hercules graphics.

Wow I don't feel like such an old man anymore. I was afraid I
was the only one left on the internet that remembered ISA CGA
EGA hercules etc. :D

Hey, just because there are two of us, it doesn't make you any
younger. :)

I'm still using the keyboard that came with my IBM PC-AT (the
new-fangled 8MHz version, not the original 6MHz one). Before
the Everex card, I started out with the monochrome
(non-grahics-capable) board from IBM. It had some write-only
registers in the video-controller chip that controlled timing.
When I tried to read them one time using the PC-DOS debugger,
it blew up my monitor. Ah, the good old days.
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