| Bill Jonas on Tue, 9 Jul 2002 14:19:44 -0400 |
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On Mon, Jul 08, 2002 at 08:35:15PM -0400, Paul wrote: > Why does the one with Linux cost less? Why do they leave out something > as cheap as a floppy drive? I don't know since I don't plan their business strategy or product lines. I'll offer some speculation, though. Floppy drive: Well, they're selling the machine for $300, and floppy drives cost money. With the razor-thin profit margins on hardware out there, I imagine that in a machine that cheap, the wholesale price of a floppy drive takes up a not-insignificant percentage of the $300 retail -- maybe a couple percent, which plays havoc with 5-10% margins. This way, they get to offer a machine under $300 and therefore some measure of bragging rights. Besides, hasn't Apple shown us that, in the days of bootable CD-ROMs, floppy drives aren't strictly necessary? Somebody that wants one can go buy one for $15-20 or get a USB floppy drive for (guessing) $50 anyway. Price difference: This won't be a shocker. The low-end OS-less machine is more powerful than the low-end Lindows machine: Microtel SYSMAR701 (Lindows machine, $299): 850 MHz Duron 128 MB memory 10 GB hard drive 56 Kbps V.92 modem (this is a softmodem[1]) LindowsOS operating system (preinstalled) Monitor and floppy disk drive are not included. Microtel SYSMAR517 (OS-less machine, $399): 1.3 GHz Duron (or 1.3GHz Celeron in the SYSMAR518) 128 MB memory 40 GB hard drive CD-ROM drive 56 Kbps modem (this is a hardware modem[2]) 3.5-inch floppy disk drive Windows and monitor are not included And, interestingly enough, it looks like this second machine is the same price with or without Lindows, but $99 cheaper than the same model with XP.[3] [1] For the life of me, I can't find a reference, but I know I saw it somewhere. It's a softmodem with a Linux driver according to what I (allegedly) read. [2] http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/05/02/1514240 [3] http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1870924 http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1870915 http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1881658 -- Bill Jonas * bill@billjonas.com * http://www.billjonas.com/ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin Attachment:
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