While Linux focuses on improving stability and efficiency, Windows Vista continues to charge a premium for its good looks and doll-like charm. Mirus has built a PC with Linux installed that costs less than a single license of Windows Vista.

Specifically this Mirus PC will run Freespire, a version of Linux developed by Linspire Inc. (formerly Lindows). Larry Kettler, CEO of Linspire says “our system builders have been forging new ground in the low-end Linux PC market for over 5 years now . . . This latest system from Mirus Innovations is the most robust hardware and software configuration, and offers the best value for under $200 to date,” according to the company’s press release.

Compare that $200 investment to the three tiers of Windows Vista available and it becomes clear why Microsoft has so much disposable income.

These are the latest prices from Amazon.com for Windows Vista in the box:

- Windows Vista Home Basic - $161.99

- Windows Vista Home Premium - $218.99

- Windows Vista Ultimate - $329.99

Granted, those are prices for new licenses of Windows Vista (as opposed to upgrade pricing), but the $200 PC comes with a new license of Linux, and it includes the hardware! Two of the three Windows Vista tiers cost more. Note the $200 Mirus PC includes a $100 deduction for a mail-in rebate.

Specs for the Mirus PC:

- Intel Celeron 420 1.6GHz processor

- 1GB Memory

- 80GB Hard Drive

- Card Reader

- Modem

- CDRW

- Keyboard, Speakers, and Mouse

- Freespire 2.0

- CNR Basic Service - providing one-click access to free and commercial Linux software

Wondering if Freespire will provide features you’re accustomed to? Linspire writes “the Mirus $199 PC provides improved out-of-the-box file type and multimedia support, such as MP3, Windows Media, Real Networks, Java, Flash, ATI, nVidia, WiFi, and many more. Freespire 2.0 also adds legally licensed proprietary drivers, codecs, and applications in its core distribution, to provide a better overall user experience. Freespire is a community-influenced, Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that is designed to be powerful enough for sophisticated Linux users and developers, yet easy enough for someone new to Linux.”

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/01/17/new-linux-pc-costs-less-than-a-single-windows-vista-license/ 

Is it just me or is this ridiculous? Microsoft is stealing from you. This will definitely help increase linux market share. Death to Vista. 

It'd be interesting to see how many of those PCs end up having a pirated copy of Windows XP installed.

Hm, wasn't Lindows the least secure version of Linux ever created? I hope they've mended their ways. They had the user logged in as root at all times or some such nonsense.

Yes but that pcs specs aren't too good and linux is free. I also have ubuntu installed on my pc and it errors too much its not a good os for the common pc user.

damn, that computer costs less than what I paid for my cpu!

linux is a smooth criminal

This will never catch on, unless it can somehow run Windows software. Oh, and if it's actually a decent OS; every version of Linux I've ever tried has been a buggy piece of crap.

It's cool that it's cheap, but I don't really think that's an amazing rig there. Isn't that like a 4-5 year old CPU and one that's not even that great (not even mentioning the 1.6ghz)? I mean, my parent's 5 year old Dell computer with an Intel P4 cpu at 2.4ghz chugs with trying to run things nowadays.

To be fair, the extra power to run windows is a little annoying and I'm not totally bought on all the graphical features that waste my computer's ability which is why I run Windows XP for best performance rather than graphical shock and awe.

Linspire sucks. They sold out to Microsoft and it went downhill from there.

You could buy one and install Ubuntu, Fedora or SuSE on it though, for no cost.

This isn't the first under $200 Linux PC, and as usual, it doesn't include a monitor (which will be an extra $150-200). Once you start adding that, Dell offers PCs in a similar price range (usually a bit more though), which tend to have slightly better features and include a cheap Windows license.

 As others have mentioned too, its a very underpowered machine. While this might be great for the grandparents or as a cheap secondary box, it has limitations even as a general family pc.