Wal-Mart and its PC source, MicroTelPC, have replaced their Mandrake PC offerings with SuSE PCs. We do not know if the financial status of MandrakeSoft and the poor marketing and retail availability in US had a role in this switch. SuSE PC prices start at $298. Wal-Mart continues to sell LindowsOS and Lycoris PCs (prices start at $199). Also, hardware prices seem to go down, as Gateway started to market a very cheap, yet fully featured 15″ XGA laptop (2.2GHz Celeron, 30GB, 256MB RAM, DVD/CD-RW), the 400SP, for only $799 US (customize it to exclude the carrying case and the extra warranty).
Wal-Mart Replaces Mandrake PCs with SuSE PCs
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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That’s odd. I never used SuSE, but from what I saw, Mandrake was an excellent choice for the beginner. From my experience, if I had to recomend any distro to anyone, it would probably be Mandrake.
that I spent 1400 + 250 for 2 years extendend warenty for my HP pavillion with the same features and with a smaller screen.
no, Mandrake is to broken in almost every case compaired to SuSe.
What are you talking about?????
NO XD 2 for it, at least yet, now this… It’s really a very good distribution and the only real opensource one, deserves better than this.
I might actually buy my next desktop from Wallmart. I’ve been wanting try Suse for a while now, but it’s not compatable with my hardware. Redhat and Mandrake are, so it seems Suse is a little particular about the hardware it runs on. Nice to see that we now have someone selling ready-to-go boxes.
It’s really a very good distribution and the only real opensource one
I agree with you on the first part but what do you mean by the second part “only real opensource one”? Are you saying that Red Hat isn’t open source? Wow, that’s funny, that makes me wonder what is on those “Source Code” cd’s that I got when I bought Red Hat 9.
I don’t have an opinion as to the usability of Mandrake compared with Suse. But I would like to say how pleased I am that prices of home computers have finally come down to a level that moderate or low income families can afford. It’s not a temporary price dip caused by the current economy either; I think $200 computers are here to stay.
-Bob
I can’t belive that anybody would shop at WalMart. Not just because of the fact that they use slave labor overseas, but becuase they are cutthroating our economy here as well.
They pay all thier employees the bare minimum that they can. They hire almost all part-time employees. They put our local small businesses out of business. They give no employee benefits when they don’t have to.
They are THE LARGEST corporation in the WORLD. Why the fuck can’t they pay anybody decent wages? Instead of paying thier employees, they Walton Family (a number of whom are in the top 10 richest people in the world) whordes it all in thier selfish bank accounts.
I just can’t understand why anyone would be so selfish to drown our economy and make life miserable for millions of employees, just to save themselves a few dollars….
I don’t think though that ALL of RedHat’s software is open source. Most of thier stuff is, but I believe that in Advanced Server, they built thier own proprietary modules. I could be wrong about this, but that is why I thought thier software was $1000+
WalMart is a disgrase to our economy and country.
Ah, I’m not sure if they release their source with their advanced server or not, but you are probably right.
You are dead on with your comment about WalMart Billy. WalMart’s clothing line TOTALLY clashes with my other outfits, which definately is a disgrace. And don’t even get me started about their patio furniture.
hehe
I’ve just installed Mandrake 9.1 on my Compaq Presario 2100 and it works perfectly, and the only thing I had to do was to get a driver from http://www.linuxant.com for that Winmodem, which now works perfectly. Mandrake is not broken, its a very good distribution, and free!!!
Considering the specs, these PCs are pricey. Really pricey.
I would say that they are cheap. Have you put together piece by piece their parts and then count the labor needed to assemble them, install the software and test them and then ship them to walmart? I say these PCs are damned cheap.
Are completely open-source, dimwits. They add patches to their tree, but those are obtainable from the original authors. If you people actually put 5 minutes of research into your dimwitted comments, there wouldn’t BE any comments here. Jesus.
http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/
I just got it a couple days ago, bought it a few weeks ago when the price was starting at 899… boy do I feel ripped off now that they lowered it a week later. Anyway, the laptop works beautifully with Linux aside from a couple small issues. I did a much more complete review of it at the forums at http://www.linuxpackages.net, just go in the “forums” section, check out the Slackware forum and look for the Gateway 400SP thread if you’re interested in knowing the details.
[Billy G is not My Lover]
You haven’t said anything that’s true of Walmart that isn’t also true for a lot of companies out there. Hurts for a society to look into a mirror doesn’t it?
Now back to the topic. I assume (it’s been awile) that SUSE has cleaned up a few things. Like when it came to changing things behind the scenes. Also how well does GNOME handle on SUSE?
They are THE LARGEST corporation in the WORLD.
Really? Wow… Walmart (and America) must be bigger than I thought: I’ve never seen a Walmart, but I have seen plenty of McDonalds. Do Walmart exist outside of America?
actually wal*mart has better starting wages than HEB here
My friend works at HEB for $5.65/hr while another friend works at Wal*Mart for $6.50/hr both just started and both are the general work-type people…you know they go get carts and stuff…. personally I’d love to work for wal*mart if they weren’t lieing bastards who let eldery people accept employees…damned people can’t remember to call people for a THIRD interview..yes a THIRD to work at wal*mart! I mean how much do they need to ask you?(yeah I know thgat is a rant….but I am sorry when I am PROMISED that the lady will call me on Thursday or Friday to tell me the time of my next interview and she doesn’t…then doesn’t remember who i am when I come in to ask her about it….)
All code written by Redhat is GPL’ed, AFAIK. http://www.redhat.com/advice/ask_shadowman_may02.html“> page might clarify their stance on Advanced Server licensing (search for GPL). The gist: It’s kinda like OpenBSD in that they don’t provide an iso, but you can still freely use RH AS software.
I’m not sure, but probably. However, many countries don’t want Wal-Marts because they are killing the local economy. You can find almost everything in a Wal-Mart. You can even make your grocery there. That’s crazy.
If you’re living in England, then Walmart will be known as Asda stores.
http://www.asda.co.uk
You know why they are so cheap? They are built by 11-year-old girls in china, who stick the pieces together and are paid 5 cents/day to live on. This is exactly the kind of undercutting that WalMart does to put the small guy out of business. How the hell can I, a small computer business owner, compete with a system like that. I can’t and will probably never be able to compete with a company that can “… put together piece by piece their parts and then count the labor needed to assemble them, install the software and test them and then ship them to walmart…” for $200. It’s not possible on decent U.S. wages.
LuzerLinux: Man, just wait until they but HEB out of business. Then they’ll drop your friends wages to nothing. They are evil cutthroat bastards. (Assuming HEB is a small local business, I’ve never heard of them…)
BR: You’re right about that. There are a TON of companies out there that do that kind of crap. They are the kind of companies that step on the backs of the American workers and get to the top off the blood and sweat of them. It does suck to look at our society, but man it’s not like you should just ignore it. You are totally ignoring the problem. Basically you’re like “yeah the world sucks, people die, oh well. As long as I can get my lower prices at WalMart I don’t give a fuck.”
Oh yeah, don’t forget, WalMart won’t sell CD with ‘bad words’ in them, nor do they sell the morning after pill.
I dont have to worry about my kids listening to some satan rock. WalMart and Mr Ashcroft edit the CD’s my kids purchase to make em God friendly. We all wanna get to heaven one day but for the time being, WalMart’s a little heaven right here on earth!
My Linux knowledge is somewhere between novice and intermediate, I do not need it professionally, only for self-teaching purposes for the day when Linux will be required as a normal computer skill.
I started installing the different flavours of RH, SuSE, Mandrake beginning from the days of SuSE 6.3 till Mandrake 8.2.
now I installed SuSE 8.2 and this is the first time I have the impression that Linux really matured somewhat relating to smoothness of setup and daily usage. In fact, this is the first time I would install Linux to a friend if he hadn’t touched *any* PC till now. I used Lycoris since the 44-days as well and I think SuSE is so much more advanced and polished as well. The only drawback is the lack of a good, centralized user forum like Lycoris has. People keep complaining about SuSE’s price, but hey! Smart people, why don’t you copy somebody else’s CDs or download ISOs of the CDs? This is explicitly allowed, only, you must not *resell* copies of SuSE.
So, good choice, Malwart. (I haven’t tried the very latest incarnations of RH and Mandrake, as mentioned above.)
A: Who gives a crap about Wal-mart and their practices?! I thought this was supposed to be a forum on operating systems…not on business ethics.
B: Having tried both SuSE and Mandrake, I have found the installation of Mandrake (9.1) difficult compared to SuSE (8.2). Further, I have also found that SuSE has generally had better support for my hardware. The major issue I have with SuSE is the package manager. Telling it to make use of a locally stored RPM has been a pain. Other than that it has been a splendid replacement for Mandrake.
If you don’t like Walmart, don’t shop there. Personally I find there whole shop tacky and cheap, however, that is just me. Sure, if you earn $1 a day and have no fashion sense then sure, shop to your hearts content, however I prefer wearing clothes that don’t look like they’ve been bought from a discount chain.
I’m a bit surprised when reading that these computers comes with “SuSE 8.2 operating system pre-installed”. Vobis began to sell computers with SuSE in Germany recently but they have only SuSE 8.1 installed because “SuSE 8.2 OEM is not ready yet and don’t wanted to wait”.
Vobis allegedly only wanted to ship 8.1 for a few weeks, by now, it could very well be the time the 8.2 OEM arrived and Vobis should switch to 8.2 accordingly any time soon…
America boycotting French products? Surprised? Not me…
>You haven’t said anything that’s true of Walmart that isn’t >also true for a lot of companies out there. Hurts for a >society to look into a mirror doesn’t it?
It’s true for a lot of companies, but it’s also not true for a lot of other companies. Your vote for the way a business conducts itself is with your dollars. If you don’t like the way a company does business, go do business elsewhere; this is why I do not buy linux computers from Wal Mart (as much as I like the idea), nor do I buy ANYTHING from Wal Mart if I can help it (if I need office supplies at 2am, I don’t have a choice).
That being said, I am really disappointed that they have Lindows and SUSE but not Mandrake. I’m using Mandrake right now and got a club subscription, it is so good that I use it every day, there’s only two functions I need to go back to Windows for. Their loss, I guess.
Chris
I am not sure, but if it were possible to put iso’s of suse distro on net as any others, then why it is not found anywhere? As far as I remember, on linuxiso.org they wrote that it is not allowed/riski/troublsome or whatever the reason to do so and you might have some troubles.I am not not sure.Has anyone of yuo any idea about putting suse iso on net?
For those who are not aware, comparing SuSE in place of Mandrake is like comparing replacing a Yugo for a Cadillac. Great choice WalMart. Next month when I expand, I will be purchasing from you.
P.S. Linux is Linux, but the way distro’s package and make things work together with configurations make all the difference.
Yes they are outside in America in places like Brazil and spreading. Walmart is actually the second largest company in the world and employs over 1 million people.
Hopwe bad they are is an exaggeration. They do drive out smaller businesses though because people choose to shop there instead of the small stores.
At the new Wal*Mart they built outside of my small town in Ohio, they have an entire automotive section where you can not only buy car stuff, but get the oil changed and have repairs made. And soon, they’re going to start to sell used cars!!
I feel bad about Mandrake, but SuSE and Red Hat have gone past Mandrake. YaST2 is a powerful tool for SuSE.
I WANT my local small businesses to go out of business.
Even if you load up with 512 MB RAM, it’s stil only $899!
When did they upgrade the $200 PCs from an 800MHz VIA C3 to a 1.1GHz Duron? Now I would consider one if I still needed it.
Too many people tooting their own horns!!!!
Bigger store, if they adapt to the competition they can continue to be profitable and posssibly get even more business. Up here in Canada, everyone thought Walmart would kill stores like “Canadian Tire”. It turns out that they found ways to adapt and Walmart didn’t make the huge inroads they initially expected.
Another large chain, “Zellers” didn’t adapt, however.
🙂
No Walden Galleria’s or Walden Books up here, though 😉
If anyone is wondering why all american companies are exporting their labor oversees…. then look no further than our trial lawyers and labor unions. Those who fight for the right of the worker over the company make it impossible for the company to hire american workers. That seems to have helped kill the economy around here more than any fscking walmart has.
The two number one reasons that companies export labor is liability and unions.
It’s hardly surprising – MandrakeSoft now has no US distributor and no US presence (they closed their American office). It wouldn’t make sense for Walmart to keep using Mandrake. Don’t think it has anything to do with the relative qualities of SuSE and MDK.
That’s not really true – Walmart owns Asda, but more or less runs it as a separate chain. Asda stores bear little relation to Walmart stores (I’ve been in both).
That makes no sense. Sure MandrakeSoft is French, but SuSE is a German company, and Germany is politically aligned with France. Think before you post…
And good for the Wal-Mart shoppers.
A side note: The objective nowaday for too many companies is to please the shareholders. How many times did you hear the executives say that employees are the MOST valuable asset? Yet when it comes to cutting cost, the employees are the first to go. How many times did you hear executives are willing to cut their bonus until their companies turn around?
It’s a disgusting fact that companies are taking advantage of cheap labor from oversea, and they pretend to not know that many the cheap labor is child labor.
That makes no sense. Sure MandrakeSoft is French, but SuSE is a German company, and Germany is politically aligned with France. Think before you post…
Not since 1945 … they are different countries.
so that is how far your education got you..? I am amazed you can read this thread at all… *lol* nice + fun addition to the thread, thanks.. 🙂
“Those who fight for the right of the worker over the company make it impossible for the company to hire american workers. ”
I think that’s not the whole truth, and nothing but. But ultimately all parties concerned are looking out for their interest. Alturistic tendencies tend to be in short supply, and the word compromise is on no one’s lips. Ultimately the best arangement is the one that balances everyone’s interest, while hurting the fewest. Good luck finding that in a crowd of vultures.
Maybe they won’t, maybe they will. But if they do I will be so happy. Why? End of Microsoft. And new beginning of opportunities for apple. Everything will be compatible. Any app that runs on the then-dominant system will run on apple. No more Delorme navigation app for windows only. Instead, linux only and works on a mac. There will be no end to this. Also, no more threats from Microsoft to cut office for the mac. Office? who cares. some totally open, not controlled by one company set of office formats will exist. what a wonderful world.
Apple? Okay Mr MacFanBotForever, as long as people want to buy computers that are $200-300, nobody is going to want to spend money on a Mac. The Macs are hundreds of dollars more expensive, and they force you to do your computing a certain way. The reason the Mac ‘Just works’ is because there is only 1 way to do things: The Apple Way. The beauty of the Linux PC is that users get a choice in how they want to compute. If they want to double click on thier icons, instead of single-click, they get the choice. If they want to change how thier window frames look, it’s thier choice. Hell, Linux users can even change thier entire user interface.
My grandparents have a Mac, and they struggle to use it, while my 10-year-old sister, has a Linux PC in her room, and doesn’t have a single bit of problems using it. I think that this is mainly attributed to the way that Macs leave the program running after you close the window. How user-friendly is that? New users aren’t going to want to navigate through the hard drive to get to thier programs, they just want a menu with thier software that they can choose from. I’m aware that the Apple Menu exists, but they don’t know how to put new programs in it. If they had a Linux PC instead, I could customize the crap out of it and have it work exactly the way it should, without wasting CPU cycles drawing PDFs all day long.
–>>AdamW: That makes no sense. Sure MandrakeSoft is French, but SuSE is a German company, and Germany is politically aligned with France. Think before you post…<<<–
Regardless of whether or not Germany *IS* ‘politically aligned’ with France… many Americans *VIEW* Germany as more neutral, open, and pliable when it comes to political discussion and compromise… whereas France is *SEEN* as purely abhorrent to just about anything American (“just because”), political interests included.
There are always exceptions, of course… as one of America’s greatest assets is its cultural and political diversity… However, generally speaking, the aforementioned is pretty much the concensus in America regarding France. This is validated by the fact that several prominent companies, organizations, and politicians have called on Americans to boycott French products. It is also supported by the many polls taken, network news coverage, and open discussion in political forums.
Walmart *could* be positioning itself to be more sensitive and in-line with American political perspectives. However, as someone previously pointed out, the move *could also* be due to the closing of Mandrake’s American office(s)…as that might make customers a bit wary when it comes to support and productivity. Both would seem to support and work towards Walmart’s end goal—to MAKE MONEY.
Anyway…I’m just stating the facts, Adam… no need to shoot the messenger… I *do* think before I post.
Take Care
Billie Boy is my lover says: “Apple? Okay Mr MacFanBotForever, as long as people want to buy computers that are $200-300, nobody is going to want to spend money on a Mac. The Macs are hundreds of dollars more expensive, and they force you to do your computing a certain way.
The people buying a $200 or 300 computer probably would have bought windows anyways. Hey, if all you want to do is browse the web and email things, a 200 linux machine is the way to go. But some people want to do more than that AND don’t want technical complications like driver installs. They want out of the box ease of use, true plug and play. Where’s the linux version of iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD? Where’s the linux version of .Mac?
he says: “The reason the Mac ‘Just works’ is because there is only 1 way to do things: The Apple Way. The beauty of the Linux PC is that users get a choice in how they want to compute. If they want to double click on thier icons, instead of single-click, they get the choice. If they want to change how thier window frames look, it’s thier choice. Hell, Linux users can even change thier entire user interface.
My grandparents have a Mac, and they struggle to use it, while my 10-year-old sister, has a Linux PC in her room, and doesn’t have a single bit of problems using it. I think that this is mainly attributed to the way that Macs leave the program running after you close the window. How user-friendly is that? New users aren’t going to want to navigate through the hard drive to get to thier programs, they just want a menu with thier software that they can choose from. I’m aware that the Apple Menu exists, but they don’t know how to put new programs in it.”
OS X has something called the dock and it’s very easy to use. You just drag an app in there. You can also put folders in it like the Applications folder, giving you the equivalent of the start menu on windows.
As far as the program running when you close the window, it actually makes sense since there’s no reason to really quit most apps in OS X. the system doesn’t allocate much memory or CPU power to them if they aren’t being used, but they don’t have to relaunch when you need them. You can quit them anytime from the Dock or the application menu (the menu with the app name) or hit command-Q. This is simple concept and once learned, it’s no problem.
I tried installing Mandrake 9.1 a few days ago. The installation kept freezing or crashing, but I restarted it, and did so a good ten times, and altho I got messages along the way: “error installing such and such a package continue anyway?”, I eventually “succeeded” and Mandrake said it was installed.
But it didn’t work at all. Except for the boot manager. Even tho I have “deleted” the partitions I created with Mandrake’s partitioner–that much of it worked–the boot manager remains to this day, and I must wait for it to show up so I can boot Windows. Otherwise it will try to boot Mandrake, which doesn’t exist in any bootable form.
Then, the other day, I tried the SuSe Live Eval CD. It crashed once, under duress, but generally worked perfectly. My Winmodem is a problem, but knowing what I know now, if I buy a computer, from Walmart or anywhere, and I had a choice between Mandrake and SuSe–it’s SuSe all the way. They’re playing for keeps, it seems, and Mandrake is riddled with bugs from the get-go (IMO, Dear Defender of Mandrake).
I realize my experience is mine, many people use Mandrake with no problems, but I couldn’t even get it installed, nor uninstalled.
Thanks, for reading, I’ll take your comments off the air.
nospin:
one of America’s greatest assets is its cultural and political diversity
*cough*
*cough cough*
Stevie J is my lover:
The reason the Mac ‘Just works’ is because there is only 1 way to do things: The Apple Way.
Yes. You have a point?
Someone who can think of a better way to work than “The Apple Way” is usually motivated and/or informed enough to create this better way with their favourite window manager. This does not magically make Apples crap because their interface is consistent.
“Regardless of whether or not Germany *IS* ‘politically aligned’ with France… many Americans *VIEW* Germany as more neutral, open, and pliable when it comes to political discussion and compromise… whereas France is *SEEN* as purely abhorrent to just about anything American (“just because”), political interests included. ”
Germany and France jointly opposed US in the UN. Furthermore the German foreign minister compared George W Bush with Hitler – and you find that more neutral?
i dont think he was expressing his own views
Hmm… PC costs $200….Microsoft software costs $500….what the fsck!
The Microtel PCs seem very expensive indeed considering the specs. Considering that Durons and PC 133 are now obsolete and basic specs should realistically be a 2.4GHz processor with 512 MB DDR RAM and CDRW. Why save $25-50 building a machine that cannot be upgraded economically. The price difference between a 1.8 and a 2.4 GHz processor is minimal. It is criminal to use PC 133 RAM which now costs virtually twice the price of DDR RAM and will be hugely expensive if a future upgrade is required.