Everex gPC

There were issues with the $200 machine.  Stories of malfunctions and breakdowns are floating around the Web, and in any case, the gPC was undeniably underpowered.  Also, it’s likely that a lot of people were turned off by the lack of a monitor.

But Everex’s gPC was Linux-based, and fans of the operating system are taking its defeat hard.  Having it available at Wal-Mart – and again, for only $200 – seemed like a way in which some market share could have been gained against Windows.

This could be a loss for Google’s much-discussed (and still-unseen) operating system, as well.  The gPC was tied to a whole lot of Google’s products and services, and if it’s no longer readily available, fewer people will be able to get used to them.

If you want to try one out, or just take a peek, the machines can still be bought, though.  Even as the physical locations prepare to carry something else, Doug Aamoth noticed that the Wal-Mart site continues to offer the $200 Everex gPC.

If you remember the last Everex product to get mentioned on WebProNews – the TC2502 gPC – you might also recall that it cost half as much.  The Cloudbook is a laptop, though, and a small one at that.

Brian White writes about some of its other features.  "[I]t comes with gobs of Google, Inc. applications and links to online services pre-installed.  These services include Google Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google News, Google Maps and YouTube."  Microsoft Vista (or XP) is also absent, because the Cloudbook has a Linux-based operating system.

There are no official ties to Mountain View, however, and the Cloudbook will be sold through Wal-Mart, not the Google Store.  It’s still not a Google PC, in other words, but for the money, and given the features, it’s not a bad approximation.

AdAge said the consumer-related assignment has drawn pitches from Microsoft’s current agency, McCann Erickson, which handles most of the Microsoft ad business. At least one other firm is believed to have made a pitch at the assignment too.

Microsoft intended for this ad review to stay quiet. But the company spent $912 million on advertising last year; a single spend of nearly a third of that had to attract attention.

As to what Microsoft plans to advertise, they aren’t saying. AdAge speculated it would be something to hit back at Apple’s popular “I’m a Mac” advertisements.

We’re going to guess it will be a push to promote the Vista operating system among consumers. Microsoft had to swallow some pride and allow OEMs to offer Vista’s precessor, Windows XP, to customers beyond the original cutoff date for the older OS.

Operating systems and the Office productivity suite represent Microsoft’s big revenue channels. If people continue to disdain Vista over stability issues, or worse, buy an Everex PC running Linux, Microsoft may plan the ad binge at keeping customers buying Windows machines.

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Turns out, according to eWeek, that Forrester Research sees Microsoft being threatened where all the money is, in the enterprise market.

“The high volume of client inquiries for Linux on the desktop clearly indicates it’s not going away any time soon. Expect Linux to experience growth over the next year as the distributors work hard to make it an enterprise-class offering,” Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray said in the report.

Vista, Microsoft’s long-awaited replacement for XP, has not flown out of the gate in the business market. Adoption has been far slower than Microsoft would like, as the operating system represents one of its two major revenue streams, the other being the Office productivity suite.

Linux vendors hoping to overcome Microsoft at the operating system level will face several hurdles. Custom applications that require Windows may not run well in emulation on a Linux system, if at all. That would be enough to keep an enterprise from making the switch.

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Or possibly not. Windows resides on millions of PCs globally, with Office occupying plenty of those machines in corporate and other environments. Ten thousand PCs doesn’t register as a seismic event; Apple has a small percentage share of PC ownership, but that counts in the millions.

Not to mention, the biggest Apple software development house not located in Cupertino resides at Microsoft’s headquarters, as the company likes to remind the Mac faithful.

With ZDNet citing the sold out status of those Wal-Mart Linux boxes, it seems people don’t mind having the ability to browse the Internet and do all kinds of mundane computer tasks like blogging and word processing for just a couple of Benjamins.

Ubuntu has gained a lot of attention for its capabilities as a desktop Linux distribution for the masses. But it probably took a Wal-Mart to get it attention for the right reason: an affordable OS that can do what people need it to do.

Even though Wired cited research that sneered at the "unsophisticated" Wal-Mart shopper buying the Everex machine because it’s crammed inside a big case, Everex seems ready to keep those buyers using an OS not called Windows, by providing 24-hour tech support via a toll-free call.

That’s an important piece of the puzzle. If Everex can keep buyers happy and returns out of the initial batch to a minimum, they can push another 10,000 out to shoppers. Maybe more. We have to wonder what the magic number will be that prompts some kind of response from Microsoft.

Could Wal-Mart be the vehicle that drives the computing public away from Windows, $200 at a time?

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Let’s key in on that word “inexpensive” for a moment – this computer is available through Wal-Mart for $199.  For that price, buyers won’t get a monitor, but they will get something that’s quite energy-efficient.  Google, the company that’s interested in sustainable transport and picking up trash, would surely approve.

And how about the computer’s operating system?  After all, Google wouldn’t voluntarily go with Microsoft Vista.  So instead, a product description states that Everex’s PC “[e]nables you to use the supplied OpenOffice.org 2.2 software suite.”

The most interesting aspect of this machine relates much more closely to the search giant, however.  Ramon G. McLeod writes, “[T]he PC’s user interface includes icons pointing to popular Google applications such as Documents and Spreadsheets, Calendar, News, and Maps.  Also pre-installed is the Firefox web browser, Meebo IM, and Skype.”

This is the kind of computer that a lot of Web-savvy people might enjoy using.  We’d still like to see an official Google PC and/or operating system, though.  And Everex really should do something about this new computer’s embarrassingly large case.

Wal-Mart is selling a desktop computer for $199 running Linux GOS– a variant of the popular Ubuntu but with lots of optimization for Google products.

From the Everex TC2502 product specs:

It runs on the gOS operating system and features the OpenOffice.org 2.2 software suite that gives users the ability to create word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. Additional highlights include a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, Ethernet port and stereo speakers.

Key Features & Benefits:

• 1.5 GHz Via Technologies C7-D processor
• 512 MB of DDR2 system memory
• 80 GB hard disk drive
• DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
• 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
• gOS operating system

Hmm, if I could only justify the purchase of yet another computer.

Note: this isn’t an official Google computer, but it’s as close as you can get!

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