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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Google to Sell Computers...Cheap!

Cheap PCs, anyone?

According to latimes.com Google is set to
launch the [1]Google PC which will run Google's own operating system.
From the article: 'Sources say Google has been in negotiations with
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The
machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's
Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap -- perhaps as little as
a couple of hundred dollars.

Google will unveil its own low-price personal computer or other device that connects to the Internet.

Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.

Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called "Google Cubes" — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets.

Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, will give a keynote address Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Analysts suspect that Page will use the opportunity either to show off a Google computing device or announce a partnership with a big retailer to sell such a machine.

And that's not the only Google theory out there. Content producers wonder whether Google's push into video search will unravel the economics that make Hollywood hum. If viewers can find and legally download an episode of "Seinfeld" through Google, will that cut into cable and network television's profits?

And what if Google, after equipping cities, starting with San Francisco, with Wi-Fi wireless technology, starts to offer pay-TV service for free?

Still, to date, the company's $123-billion stock market value is based almost entirely on its dominance of one business: global text searches on the Web. Some investors worry that Page and co-founder Sergey Brin could be done in by their penchant for seeing themselves as do-gooders rather than profiteers. But those naysayers are in the minority. Most industry executives and Wall Street analysts believe that Google's search engine business is robust enough to give the young billionaires two or three years of wiggle room to build nifty services first and worry about making money on them later.

More here: www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-predict1jan01,0,3503327.story
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Great I say! Let's see what kind of OS this has and how stable/performing it is.

[Maddad]

The world badly needs competition for Microsquash. It is incredibly badly written, yet it's the only real game in town. Giving us, the consumer, a choice will force them to tighten their code and lower their price. To bad for Gates; he may only make $10 billion a year now.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I have been meaning to install Linux on one of my machines and give it a spin.

Competition is good, and Microsoft needs the in-your-face threat. We will all win and good for Google. I am very interested in what operating system it will include on their machines.

I can change quite easily.

[Centaur]

Microsoft will launch Windows Vista later this year. It will have been nearly five years since Windows XP became their state of the art OS, an unusually long period of stasis for MSFT. Here's a link to info:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10714080/from/RSS/

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Although probably more stable than it's predecessors, I steer away from XP when I can. I do not have it installed on any of my machines, as I swap devices constantly, I refuse to beg Microsoft for the installation code every time I do so. I have an installation disk sitting on my shelf, but perhaps that's where it will remain.

I like the control the other OS's allow and hum right along. I cut my computer teeth on Win95...gosh...seems like a lifetime ago!...

The MSNBC article didn't report on the OS, but rather relayed Gate's announcement on peripheral trinkets - (media player, digital music etc...). I would have liked to have read about the muscle of Vista.

Let's see how Vista, (Formally Longhorn), works out, but I am really interested in Google's OS!

[Rocketman]

Oh no, not Linsux!

The world really is going to hell in a handcart...

[Rocketman]

Joe why the interest in a different OS?

Are you still in the dark ages of internet connectivity? 56K blows!

[Maddad]

Something about Microsquash unnerved me the other day. It was somebody talking about a problem with their iPod. It had been given to them by a friend who loaded it with 300 megs of music. Since then they broke up and are not talking. He can't make changes to his iPod, so he's limited to the songs that are already on it.

The reason that problem gives me the shivers is that when I didn't know any better, I ripped about 300 CD's into WMA format instead of MP3's. Took me a month. A year or so later I reformatted the drive, so Microsquash lost the record that these songs really were mine. Under no circumstances would it let me listen to my own music. I had to delete 1,300 WMA files and re-record them from CD as MP3's. I swore never again to patronize Microsquash.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Grady,

I explore as many options as I can, play around with different configurations - each one having an advantage over each other. But striving to get the best performance with what I have on hand, ergo...let's see what Vista has in store for us.

Dave,

Now that just drops the bottom out of ones great efforts. Proprietary formats get the best of us at times, and the smart work around them.

What kinda tunes did you convert to MP3's?

[Rocketman]

Well I patronize what works, and what works well. XP has never gave me one single problem. I leave my computer on 24/7 for months at a time.

I refuse to patronize Linux. I started off with Windows, and learned how to use it. I'm not going to cross that fence.

[Maddad]

Joe
geocities.com/m_e_devine
It was a lot of humorous music, especially Bob Rivers and Wierd Al Yankovich. 60's and 70's stuff too. (Somewhere I've got a list of my music online - found it geocities.com/m_e_devine/songs.htm ) Turn your speakers on when you visit this site I built for the head librarian at the college I go to. She's not a gun enthusiast, and kept covering her face and laughing when she heard it. Said she was going to kill me for making it. One of her co-workers said, "Yeah, that's just what we'd expect from you. More violence."