Sam’s Club offers $299 Red Hat Linux boxes

I just read today that Sam’s Club is about to start offering 1.1 GHz Duron PCs running Red Hat Linux for $299.
The machines are beefier than Wal-Mart’s $199 Microtel PCs running Lindows and Lycoris. The machines don’t exactly compete with one another; the 800 MHz Microtel boxes are good enough for word processing and e-mail, and Lindows and Lycoris target users with simple needs. Red Hat targets people with a little more familiarity with PCs, as does AMD. Sam’s is also offering a $399 version with a 2 GHz AMD Athlon XP.

The machines are built by a Kansas outfit called CPUbuilders. The systems utilize a SiS chipset with integrated video. They use PC133 memory and not the newer, faster DDR memory. The 1.1 GHz model comes with 128 megs of RAM and a 20-gig drive; the 2 GHz model has 256 megs and a 60-gig drive. Both have standard amenities like Ethernet, modem, sound, and a CD-ROM drive. The budget model lacks a floppy drive, while the more expensive model has one.

They both appear to be solid, but basic, configurations. It’ll be interesting to see how successful they are in the marketplace.

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3 thoughts on “Sam’s Club offers $299 Red Hat Linux boxes

  • February 5, 2003 at 9:25 pm
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    Hi Dave,
    Where did you read this? I haven’t come across it on my usual techie news sites.

    I have a RedHat 8.0 install. It reminds me of NT 4.0. Businesslike and a bit sparse. I haven’t used it yet, but Xandros sounds like it might be a better fit for the Sam’s Club crowd.

    Alan–

  • February 6, 2003 at 12:31 am
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    News.com I think.

  • February 6, 2003 at 8:28 am
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    Dave,

    Here’s the URL: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-983525.html

    As far as your past writings, I have a dog-eared copy of “Optimizing Windows”. It was very useful when I ran W98 at home. I still leaf through it simply because I enjoy your style.

    Your daily log is also entertaining and often brings a chuckle. And usually one, or more, pearls. Whether editing video, Wikipedia, baseball.

    Thank you,
    Dave

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