Lindows.com, the company that builds those low-cost Linux-based PCs sold at Wal-Mart, is offering a new “information appliance” that is basically a hard drive-less PC. The WebStation is set to retail for $169 (without monitor), and will boot off a Lindows OS 4 CD-ROM, and have 256MB of RAM, a pokey 733MHz VIA processor, and an Ethernet port (but no modem). Whether they’re called “information appliances” or “Internet appliances,” these kinds of stripped-down computers have never been particularly successful. For just a little bit more money you could just buy a used PC that comes with a hard-drive, which, believe it or not, is a feature that most people actually want in a PC.
