Someone once told me that the cost of computers have never changed. They remain at the same price, but you get more computer for the same dollar amount. Well, if your talking about $2,000 computers then that’s true, but computers have dropped in price enormously over the years. My first computer, an IBM PCjr, cost about $1,300 back in 1984. Today, the same dollar amount would buy a good Pentium 4 system with an LCD monitor.

The cheapest computers I’ve seen were around $500 which includes a monitor. Children in 3rd world countries have a low cost (approx. $100) computer designed for them. A very low cost computer is needed even for the wealthier nations. Not everyone can afford to buy a computer, and most families need multiple machines since computers are so essential for school and day-to-day activities.

Yesteday, Mad Tux and Vector Linux announced a Linux PC at the unheard of price of $139. This easily puts computing in the hands of the masses. There are some things to note. The computer doesn’t have a monitor, keyboard, or optical drive, but these are are not expensive to purchase separately.

It doesn’t come with Windows either. You do get a pre-installed version of Vector Linux and if you want add technical support for it, it will cost an additional $24.99.

The specs for the system are the following:

• VIA C7 1.5GHz processor
• 256MB DDR2 RAM included
• 13.5GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
• 100Mbps fast-ethernet port
• 128-bit 3D/2D Graphics engine
• Full-featured AGP v2.0 compliant 4x transfer mode AGP controller
• UltraDMA EIDE controller
• Memory expandable to 2GB
• Two 32-bit PCI slots
• Two IDE connectors onboard
• VIA VT1612A 6-channel audio codec, Intel AC’97 compliant
• Two PS/2 ports for mouse and connector, one serial, one parallel ports, one VGP port, one LAN port, four USB 2.0 ports and audio jacks

Now all you need to is add a low cost Internet connection and your set.

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