Wal-Mart Inc. opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a US$298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends -- open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of "bloatware." The Everex Impact GC3502 uses Microsoft Corp."s Windows Vista OS, but substitutes the OpenOffice.org 2.2 version of word processing and spreadsheet tools for the traditional Microsoft Office variety. The computer runs on a 1.5GHz C7-D processor from Via Technologies Inc., a chip that meets lead-free environmental regulations and saves energy with low wattage demands.
The sales price does not include a monitor, but is still lower than comparable packages sold on Wal-mart"s Web site, such as a Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Compaq Presario, an Acer America Corp. AcerPower FH Minitower and a Dell Inc. Dimension desktop.