While many politicians, Democrats and Independents mostly, speak of the ‘Two Americas’, referring to the distance between the very rich and the very poor, it seems there is a great divide between the computers that these people wish to use.

At the one end of the spectrum, there are the full-on gaming machines, which can easily run above $7000 dollars, and now the extreme other end is beginning to consist of machines that are so inexpensive that a child from that difficult-to-find average family, can purchase one with the monetary gains from a birthday.

At Christmas, WalMart ran out of the Everex PC that was priced at $199, and had become an item of great interest, as it used relatively meager, but up-to-date hardware, and an operating system based on a popular Linux distribution. More were promised, and may possibly be back in stores now.

The guts of the machine, the Via PC-1 motherboard with processor, can be had online for $60, and makes a great start for a Windows Home Server (although that would take it out of the inexpensive realm, simply because of the Microsoft operating system, which is three times the cost of the motherboard/processor, and possibly the amount of storage), or a quality router/firewall.

Now Sears has a less expensive computer offering than WalMart - although it is only after a rebate by mail that the extra savings are realized. What seems to be happening is a realization by many that computing needs are less than what was being sold by the big companies as average. Also, many others who wish to play games become annoyed with the ever mounting hardware costs of upgrades to play the flavor-of-the-week game. Usage of a console ties one into the same hardware for a time, and costs are kept within reason.

Still, the message is clear. Computers are not romanticized by all. Those of us that get starry eyed with the latest $500 video card are a minority. Even those of moderate income see the benefit of having one powerful computer, shared, and for all the mundane tasks, less powerful, and less power-hungry machines in the children’s bedrooms.

With the new year, it will be interesting to see how much traction these machines will achieve. With increased sales of the smaller computer, perhaps Microsoft will deign to allow Windows XP, or maybe XP-N, to be offered at a reasonable price. Linux is good for many, but those weaned from the Microsoft interfaces will yearn for the comfort and ease of what they know.

Microsoft, are you listening - or are you in your oversize grandeur, turning a deaf ear?

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Tags: appliance pcs, small form factor, via pc-1 platform, everex pc, walmart, sears, windows xp, xp-n