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Shopping for a new PC can be a troublesome experience because it's easy to get blinded by specifications and 'free' bundles of add-ons.
While that £2,000 beast might seem good on paper, will you ever really use all of its features?
It's much better to work out what you want your PC to do and buy accordingly.
For the casual internet and word processor user, Evesham has created the £250 E-scape Li.
Sitting firmly in the 'no frills' bracket, costs have been pushed down at every point by steering clear of the major manufacturers.
Intel and AMD options have been replaced with a VIA Eden 800MHz processor, which stumbles on more intensive tasks but copes adequately with internet and word processing functions.
Much more shocking is that the familiar Microsoft Windows surroundings have been dumped in favour of the new Lindows operating system.
Lindows is built on Linux and is much cheaper than Windows. It was built to give a cheap operating system offering compatibility with Windows applications.
In reality, this isn't quite the case. Lindows is just Linux running an emulator application, meaning it fools applications into thinking that Lindows is actually Windows.
Unfortunately, it only works with a small number of applications that the Lindows website calls "bridging" applications. The idea is to use these applications to fully make the move to Lindows.
At the moment Microsoft Office 2000 is the only listed application. As no other office software is provided, your only choice is to try to track down Office 2000 or download Open Office, which isn't as compatible with Office applications as it would like to pretend.
Lindows also stumbles when it comes to games, as it doesn't support Microsoft DirectX.
The interface is designed to closely resemble that of Windows, with a Start menu and the familiar My Computer icon.
Even so, the system just isn't as easy to use as Windows. Many simple functions are clouded by the complex Linux operating system.
There's no easy way to change the Desktop size and no Add/Remove Programs utility for managing the software on the computer.
New users will soon get confused yet, unhelpfully, help documents relating to Windows users are only available through the Lindows website.
What's more, the hardware you buy doesn't necessarily have drivers for the operating system. Buying a printer suddenly becomes a complicated process that could see you out of pocket.
Still, the hardware isn't too bad. A respectable 40GB hard disk matches up nicely to the 256MB of memory.
The graphics are built onto the motherboard rather than on a separate graphics card, but as games won't work, that's pretty irrelevant.
It has a TV-out socket too and sound is also on-board, but there are no speakers.
Upgrading is out of the question as there's only one PCI slot, which is taken up by the modem. For the most part, you're stuck with the provided hardware. The only good thing about it is that two USB ports are provided at the front.
There's no monitor included, although Evesham will throw in a 17in model for an extra £120. For a further £70 you can get a copy of Windows XP Home Edition.
This is going to be a lot more useful than Lindows, although at this point you're probably stretching your budget and might as well opt for a slightly better system altogether.
Lindows doesn't deliver where needed thanks to poor commercial software and hardware support.
DETAILS
Contact: Evesham 0870 160 9500
www.evesham.com
See also:
Aries has launched a 1.7GHz PC for £399. It's certainly cheap, but is it any good? 27 Feb 2003
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