Can a sub-$200 PC possibly be any good? A new model, the Microtel SYSMAR710, recently was offered for $199.86 at Walmart.com, so I decided to find out. The bottom line is that it is a minimal but perfectly acceptable piece of hardware for light-duty home use.
Of course, at that price, there are some important limitations. First, it uses a version of the Linux operating system called Lindows, from startup Lindows.com. I think nearly all buyers would be much happier ponying up an extra $100 for the nearly identical SYSMAR150, which comes with Windows XP Home Edition. And neither model includes a display. So at the very least, you'll need a 15-inch color CRT monitor, starting at around $120, or a flat-panel display at $300.
The Microtel (MCTL
) PCs achieve their very low cost by using processors with integrated video and audio circuitry from Taiwan's VIA Technologies. The 800-MHz processor isn't up to video editing or arcade games, but it's just fine for word processing or Web surfing. The 128 megabytes of memory, 8 MB of which are used for video, is generous for Lindows and adequate for Windows. Both models come with 10-gigabyte hard drives--minuscule by today's standards but sufficient if you don't collect music or video clips. The Lindows model features a built-in Ethernet network connection, but you'll need to add a modem for a dial-up connection to the Internet. Both versions also include a CD-ROM drive, four USB 1.1 ports, and cheap speakers.
The $100 Windows premium forced by Microsoft's (MSFT
) pricing may seem outrageous. But the fact is, Lindows falls far short of its promise of making Linux attractive to nontechies. It can, as advertised, run some Windows programs, most notably the Word and Excel components of Microsoft Office. But you'll need to scrounge a copy of the discontinued Office 2000, because the current Office XP won't work.
A Netscape browser is included, and $99 buys you a subscription to the Lindows.com software service. With it, a large number of programs can easily be downloaded and installed, including Sun Microsystems' (SUNW
) $70 StarOffice suite, which offers many features of Microsoft Office. But the programs will be unfamiliar to Windows users, and many, including StarOffice, seem designed for techies.
Then there is Lindows itself. While Linux is a rock-solid operating system, the user interface on this version, a vaguely Windows-like product called the K Desktop Environment, has many rough edges. For example, one of the choices offered by the printer installation wizard is "Remote CUPS server (IPP/HTTP)." Opening the file manager reveals folders, including "root," "bin," and "etc," whose purpose is meaningful only to someone familiar with Unix.
While most anyone should be able to make this work well enough to use the Netscape browser and e-mail program and to type letters in Word or StarOffice, I think the cost in frustration will quickly top the $100 Windows surcharge. The main appeal of the Lindows version may be to a college student who wants a cheap terminal to run on a campus Unix network. The Windows version, offering the same hardware (except with a modem instead of an Ethernet port), might appeal to a buyer who wants to spend as little as possible and isn't much interested in raw power or multimedia performance.
An inexpensive PC that is usable by nontechies and that avoids the Windows monopoly premium would be nice. But for now, I have to recommend sticking with Microsoft.
By Steve Wildstrom
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