On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:16:13 -0500, Robert Myers <rmyers@rustuck.com>
wrote:On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 23:05:12 GMT, Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca>wrote:<snip> A quick search throughTigerDirect's site shows that you can get all of this for a total costof $110 + s/h. If you bought used equipment you might be able to getclose to the same performance level for the same price, but noteasily.Good deal for somebody learning Linux from the command line interface,or maybe grandma doing her (text) e-mail.If the linux neophyte decides he's learned enough at the commandprompt and starts gdm, he may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Ifthe neophyte knows what he's doing (but then, he's a neophyte, isn'the) he'll dump Nuatilus and the default window manager for xnc andsome lightweight window manager. Otherwise, he will decide that Linuxis a POS.
Most of the time, if Linux is slow it's because of insufficient
memory. Certainly KDE won't fly, but it will run, and probably run
better than a top-end PC from only 5 yeas ago.
Similarly, when grandma starts shooting pictures of the cat andgrandkids back and forth, she'll be less than thrilled.
Perhaps, but if grandma's previous system was a Pentium 166MMX that
she used at work a couple years back (that was standard fare for many
office employees until the late 90's), it'll be pretty speedy.
Either could save themselves alot of misery by boosting for a $50processor from AMD or Intel, but the C3 is probably soldered-down onthe board you found.
Processor is indeed soldered on the board, and the same site does list
some AMD Duron motherboard + processor combo's for only about $70.
Mind you, that extra $60 over this system represents more than a 50%
increase in price. Almost certainly worth it for most of us in North
America or western Europe, and I do believe that VIA's niche is quite
limited here. However there are a lot of countries in the world where
$60 US is as much (or more) than the average adult earns in a month.
Admittedly, most people in the poorest of countries are probably going
to opt to feed themselves and their families well before they look to
buy a computer, however there are plenty of places in the world where
saving $50 or $60 on a computer is very worthwhile, even if the result
is lower performance.
Anyway, my point is simply that VIA knows it's niche in the computer
world. It's a very small niche in North America and Europe, but it
does exist. It's a larger niche in other countries and VIA is making
money selling processors into these markets.
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Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca