We found out who makes Walmart's new Gateway laptops, and it's bad news:
Back in 2007, Taiwan-based PC manufacturer Acer bought the once-iconic Gateway brand in order to stick a thumb in the eye of rival OEM Lenovo and increase its US market presence. In the 13 years since, the Gateway brand has languished largely unused, while Acer built up its own name in the United States directly. The cow is officially back now, though, with a new line of mostly budget, Walmart-exclusive Gateway laptops.
[...] In June of this year, we reviewed and absolutely despised a $140 EVOO laptop—a device powered by an AMD A4-9120e CPU, just like the cheapest model of Gateway laptop in the table above. The new GWTN116-1BL has twice the RAM and storage compared to the effectively uncooled, drastically underclocked, and absolutely bletcherous EVOO EV-C-116-5—but when we went sleuthing, we discovered shipping records indicating that it, too, is an EVOO system.
More accurately, EVOO imports devices made by Shenzhen Bmorn Technology, a Chinese national brand. We found US Customs records of EVOO importing from Bmorn, with devices under both the Gateway brand and EVOO's own inside the same shipment.
An Acer representative confirmed later that, although Acer does own the Gateway brand, it is not directly involved in the production or manufacture of these devices.
[...] We've heard people say decent things about EVOO's higher-end laptops, so it's possible that some of these will turn out to be a good deal. We intend to test and review at least one of them here soon—but in the meantime, we'd advise some caution with the new "Gateway" brand.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @11:42PM (6 children)
Even their "regular" laptops are garbage.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday September 18 2020, @12:23AM
And what's the "bad news"? The reviews already pointed out they were crap, so the fact that Yu Shiang Whole Fish Manufacturing is making it... uhh, confirms that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @12:55AM (1 child)
Acer doesn't even make these laptops. Someone further down the food chain produces them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @01:18AM
Plainly, I was talking about Acer's regular "Acer" branded laptops.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday September 18 2020, @03:13PM
Not Acer, they just licensed the name. EVOO is the company behind the new Gateways. Apparently EVOO has a pretty terrible reputation as far as quality is concerned.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday September 18 2020, @03:15PM
My Acer runs fine. The N3450 CPU has four cores running at 1.1Ghz base with 4GB ram, and I payed $140 for it two or three years ago. Currently runs Linux Mint like a champ.
But I have a desktop too for any heavy lifting. The laptop is used for web browsing, movies, as a terminal, or a Steam Link to play games on the living room TV. Without the desktop I could not edit videos, run CAD software, or play video games, but it still was a sub-$200 laptop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @12:52AM
The tricky bit about Acer and like, is that unlike IBM era Thinkpads and Apple, they have both cheap as shit "consumer" models and B2B "professional" models.
Thus you can't say Acer and end there, you have to specify if you are talking Acer Aspire or Acer Travelmate. As the former will be cheap but questionable in quality, while the latter will be a workhorse that will keep on going more often than not.
And we find the same pattern with Dell (Inspiron vs Latitude) or HP (Pavilion vs Elitebook).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 17 2020, @11:42PM (5 children)
We sprang for a System 76 laptop for our daughter, and I am happy we did. It's blazing fast and stylish to boot; my daughter had previously dared us to pry her mac from her cold, dead fingers, but when we opened the box with the 76 she saw how beautiful it was and immediately passed her cherished mac to her brother. Yes, it's expensive, but projects like System 76 are worth supporting, and their products are solid and their customer service is too.
I have been watching Purism, also, for the same reasons, but they're not as immediately available as System 76's machines are. Maybe Soylentils who have used their librem laptops or phones can chime in with their experiences; I would certainly read what they have to say with interest.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @12:28AM (1 child)
Daughter gets a new shiny, brother gets the hand-me-down. Hope your son takes you to family court!! Hope the judge makes you spring for the boy's new mainframe too!
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @12:39AM
We Nacirema [wikipedia.org] are a gynocentric [wikipedia.org] people.
Don't be a cultural chauvinist [wikipedia.org], our ways are as valid as your own.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 18 2020, @03:29AM
Unfortunately, work buys my laptops, and while I might make a good case for a System 76 given my work patterns, I also need an IT dept approved laptop to get their VPN client and other "security" stuff - which means a laptop that they cram full of Teams, Chat programs (yes, multiple), MS-Office, Zoom, their own crap, and other things. It looks like something you just got home from Circuit City when you boot up: window after window of things they think you need to see. They invade Chrome and set fixed startup pages... but, I really don't want two laptops on my desk at home in addition to my NUC + mechanical keyboard & gaming mouse & whatever dev hardware I need at the moment. So... I wish System 76 well, maybe someday I'll setup an office on the boat with one.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:04PM (1 child)
no offense, but i don't know how your daughter was allowed to have a iSlave to begin with. Maybe you could teach her to choose computers based on technical and ethical merit instead of how fancy it looks, FFS. Does she want her children to be told whether they can eat or travel by some closed source AI? It's your job to use your experience to warn her about the future she'd be building with her naive and foolish choices.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 19 2020, @01:52PM
She didn't choose the mac. It was a hand-me-down from my wife, and that woman has been immune to my love of Linux for 20 years. It was a major victory to get her to concede the System 76 machine for our daughter.
Me, I am trying hard to get off all closed-source systems, with the phone being the only remaining one. I would dearly love to replace it with pinephone or a Purism device, but the wait is months long and even then it's not sure to work with Verizon, which is a deal-breaker for me.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @11:45PM
EMOO would have been a fitting name for the resurrection of Gateway
(Score: 5, Informative) by krishnoid on Friday September 18 2020, @12:01AM (24 children)
They require the manufacturers to provide an extended warranty [costco.com], and apparently since they couldn't find an outsourced support service that met their standards, they provide their own tech support line.
If you have hardware problems that the manufacturer can't solve in a timely way, you can return it, get all your money back, and Costco makes the manufacturer eat the cost; enough returns and the manufacturer runs the risk of not being able to sell through Costco. That's a strong incentive to provide better-quality components in the models they sell through Costco.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @12:12AM (23 children)
"Bäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäaäa" she replied, giving a look of incomprehension.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @01:32AM (13 children)
Love their cheap gas and tire service.
Their merchandise (mostly foodstuff) are of a decent quality, too. Pretty good customer service as well.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @02:45AM (12 children)
Plus, honestly, finding good quality foodstuff there I can conceivably use before it expires is very much more hit than miss.
(Perhaps I should explain how I hate the place and wouldn't shop there but know all about it?
Yeah, fair.)
K, so members can take non-members in to shop. Supposed to recruit you and make you a member. Never worked on me. But I've probably been in there every ~6 months since the place started or somewhat near, many years at any rate, not doxing myself nor looking up when they started.
Family, you don't get to choose them, you know?
Customer service? Usually competent. Same as any of the three local groceries.
All of which are better than 40 miles closer.
And none of which demand my name or other details in order to take my money in return for goods.
Let's not forget the last, that's the biggest swelling pussboil here.
Are you really ready to sell yourself and your seed* for $10/week?
How about $30?
$50?
Just how much do you imagine you will extort from the justified and exalted ruler of the middle nation?
Fine, I'll hand you off to my interrogators, them gators will suck all the info out of you and then hand you off to the recyclogators.
You don't want to know what the recyclogators are going to do with you?
I understand, and I am merciful. I will grant you silence, a respite from my wagging tongue.
For the few moments
you
have
left.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @02:49AM (4 children)
Better than walmart.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @03:04AM (3 children)
Last I checked (been some time) they still accept cash from anyone that walks in the door.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @03:11AM (1 child)
Yeah.
See, costco actually pay their staff decently, and recruit better trained people.
Walmart? Cheaper the better. Downward spiral.
Walmart wouldn't be what it is today if there was no China.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @03:31AM
Will they continue in the great anglo-etc. tradition of accepting money for products?
Or will they continue their own, disgraceful, tradition of identifying everyone fully, feeding their info into the Beast, and awaiting the Mark(tm) before proceeding to allow purchase?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday September 18 2020, @11:22PM
When a Walmart self-checkout register runs low on change, it goes to card-only mode, telling the customer after scanning the first item that it will not accept cash tender nor give cash back for debit/EFTPOS card purchases. Lately, during the U.S. nationwide coin shortage, some Walmart stores began running all their self-checkouts in card-only mode, with only staffed registers accepting cash. Fortunately, the card-only phase at the Walmart supercenter near my home lasted only a few days, during which several customers in the habit of using cash ended up going to the customer service desk and buying a gift card from an associate.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by fakefuck39 on Friday September 18 2020, @05:18AM (6 children)
literally every large store I know requires your name and contact info to sign up for their rewards/discount program. Yes, they all allow you to shop there without providing this already publicly available information. And for not providing your already publicly available information for the rewards card, you don't get the discount - it's up to you. costco only does rewards program - their business plan is to make money on the membership, not the products they sell.
the question is, unless you are a foil-hat autistic retard, why do you think things available about you from the white pages or a google search are private information. now everything is private. apparently this is what you consider selling your soul. you have issues putting things in perspective, and are pigeon-holed into a certain weird pointless view, and a deviation from it makes you panic and think the sky is falling. because of your autism.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 18 2020, @01:21PM (1 child)
There are decent arguments both ways. Your argument that the info is already public information is countered by the fact that your buying patterns aren't public information. There's a huge aparattus that's reading various sources of information and making predictions about how people who act in certain ways (say "buying EMoo computers") will act in other ways. It's not personally that revealing, but it allows pre-judgement to prejudice how they react to you.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by fakefuck39 on Friday September 18 2020, @02:40PM
Buying patterns from that store is not private information. You're in public and anyone can see what you're buying. The reason stores track this: making sure inventory is stocked, and so you can reorder items. For example, if I buy something at a store, it shows up in my purchase history and I can reorder it online. It's public information, and it's a big convenience for me to click reorder instead of searching again for every item. Because it's public information, I don't care if they sell it. Now, your online order is not public information. And they do sell that list too I'm sure. Don't quite know how to order something online w/o giving your name and address though.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:07PM (1 child)
only disgusting slaves use the rewards programs. it's not about your ID being public. it's about letting them tie every transaction to that ID. are you fucking retarded? or just a sycophant?
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Friday September 18 2020, @10:25PM
right, to get a discount and be able to easily reorder online, i'm a slave. ok retard. newsflash retard: whatever you put in your cart is public information. since everyone can see it. and so is the name on your credit card.
you however are a slave, to your autistic mind. you're spending your life hiding your name and items you purchase from the world, and it disturbs you if anyone knows you purchased anal lube for when the nigger comes over to fuck your wife while you watch.
yeah, i'm retarded. whatever you say skippy. you have a mental disease. there are pills for that.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday September 20 2020, @11:27PM (1 child)
*Rolls eyes.*
Sure. So?
"why do you think things available about you from the white pages or a google search are private information."
Why do you think I think that?
You're weird. :^/
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Tuesday September 22 2020, @02:47PM
that's what this whole conversation is about sherlock. the data leaked is available from a google search or the white pages. just like what you ring up at the store is available to anyone present at the store. you think it because you literally said it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 18 2020, @03:34AM (6 children)
I've had very variable experience at Costco, from store to store. Some act like they're doing you an extreme favor "letting" you shop in their store - like: opening 20 minutes late, yeah be glad we're opening at all. 45 minutes before posted close time? Yeah, that's when the active chasers start pushing you out of the aisles toward the checkout. Out of stock on something down low and need to open a new box from a high shelf? Don't dare ask for that, they'll go have a coffee and donut break in front of you just out of spite for even thinking they should serve your desires. Must be a good gig there if you can get it, but it was definitely enough to make me non-renew when corporate jacked up the annual fee again.
Other Costco stores have been perfectly reasonable about customer service, but even there you get the feeling from corporate that they also think you are getting a big favor being permitted to buy an annual pass to enter the store.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @03:41AM (2 children)
Well, yes, exactly.
Which is why I must reply; go die in a fire.
Can't imagine ever buying a membership to such a scam; hoping but not expecting the principles to be publicly executed before this is all over. >:)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @03:54AM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFCWpn4qQ4 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 18 2020, @04:00AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by EETech1 on Friday September 18 2020, @06:54AM
That's exactly what I would expect some other merchant to say!
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday September 19 2020, @12:01AM (1 child)
Considering how big a deal Costco makes about customer ("member") support, unless the store managers can legitimately justify why those sites tend to have a lot of problem customers that dawdle (although opening late is a little suspicious), have your friends submit enough complaints and corporate may start coming down on them.
Sounds like these specific stores either have a problem customer base, or more likely are run by a store manager that hates customers/promotes a toxic work environment that trickles down to the rank-and-file.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 19 2020, @02:31AM
So not worth the effort- we left town instead.
Very much this. IMO Costco was barely worth the membership, and hardly worth my efforts to reform.
I did make an attempt to reform my local grocery store, website notes to corporate about the slippery entrance (had been that way for years), entrance was resurfaced and no longer slippery within a month. Further notes to corporate about their bullshit BOGO price games and spiraling prices (not just inflation, more like +30-50% price increase relative to other grocery stores in the area within a 5 year timespan), seem to have fallen on less receptive ears. I figure we spend about $6K per year at the grocery, I doubt they miss us, but I also get the attitude from store employees that they think it's impossible for customers to quit them (they have over 50% of the grocery retail space in the city, probably over 70% in the state) Newsflash: it was shockingly easy to quit the chain after a 50 year lifetime as a customer, took about 3 months to get comfy in the competitors, now for the last 2+ years our spend in the big chain is down from $500/month to about $20/year.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @02:58PM (1 child)
Your point has merit. However, do you understand that by not generating a normal level of surveillance-worthy activity/purchasing data, you stand out like a Kmart flashing blue light compared to the rest of us sheep, right? You're drawing unwanted attention to yourself by behaving just like a domestic terrorist would.
;-> If you have something to hide, you don't belong here. Why do you hate America? ;->
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday September 21 2020, @12:03AM
"Why do YOU hate America? Why do you betray it? Why don't you get a real job? Not as easy as it sounds, is it? Nope, especially after a few decades of your employers running things, it sure ain't."
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 18 2020, @12:37AM (9 children)
Isn't the term "budget laptop" at least a near oxymoron? I mean, I can build you a pretty nice "budget desktop" or "budget workstation". For varying definitions of "nice" I can build you a nice "budget server". Laptops? It seems a contradiction in terms, really. "Small, light, and easily hand portable" pretty much precludes the use of a helluva lot of "budget" components. "Budget laptop" is almost as dumb as a "budget sport car". As soon as you introduce budget components, you've begun to defeat the very purpose of either a laptop, or a sport car. In both cases, you can expect to crash and burn.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 18 2020, @12:55AM (6 children)
Well, you're wrong and out of touch.
There have been plenty of great laptops in the $75 to $300 range in the last decade.
Two examples: Motile 14" Laptop: Ryzen 3, 1080p, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD $199 + Free Shipping [slickdeals.net]
Lenovo 100e 11.6" Chromebook: 1366x768 TN, MT8173C, 4GB RAM, 16GB Storage $80 + Free Store Pickup [slickdeals.net]
I bought the latter and use it almost every day.
Budget components aren't the death knell that they used to be. Build quality is way up across the industry (with some notable counterexamples like EVOO), and passively cooled APUs can give acceptable performance, unlike the mid-2000s netbooks.
It's probably cheaper to make and sell the smaller laptops (11.6"). Less materials, less volume and weight to ship. So there is actually no contradiction between small, light, and cheap. You do get some frustrating design choices as a result though, like soldered RAM.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday September 18 2020, @01:29AM
Runaway? Wrong and out of touch? That can't be right, surely?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 18 2020, @01:39AM (3 children)
Can that Lenovo Chromebook take Linux? Arch ARM or so might be really nice on there.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 18 2020, @02:12AM (2 children)
I haven't bothered. It does everything I need it to do and there's nothing much for Google to spy on.
https://old.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/c0jwhr/any_way_to_get_a_full_version_of_linux_working_on/ [reddit.com]
GalliumOS can run on the Intel x86 versions of Lenovo 100e.
MT8173C version gets EOL'd in June 2025. That's probably when I would knock out the ChromeOS.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:09PM (1 child)
"I haven't bothered. It does everything I need it to do and there's nothing much for Google to spy on."
lmao. oh lordy.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday September 18 2020, @07:15PM
I wondered when you would show up. Don't you know that the 5G backscatter is already interfacing with your brain?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @02:54AM
> plenty of great laptops in the $75 to $300 range
Yep, I have a couple of connections (made through craigslist) with guys that work IT at local companies. Haven't had any problems getting lightly used genuine Lenovo ThinkPads...from the Win 7 Pro era. Really solid machines, most with 15+" screens, prices have been from $75 to $180, always 8GB RAM, some with good sized SSDs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @01:29AM
And taky is right.
Cheap laptop is way cheaper than cheap desktop, way cheaper than some custom-built desktop however you source your components..
Blame the globalized (i.e., Chinese) manufacturing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Friday September 18 2020, @09:56AM
Used Thinkpads are very cheap and if you add a small SSD to them (most have an M.2 slot) they surpass many contemporary offerings. You could also brain an unsuspecting Mac user with them in a pinch.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 18 2020, @12:38AM (5 children)
Ars did a pretty good job covering the horror story of an EVOO laptop that was half as fast as the CPU would suggest due to poor quality passive cooling.
We bought Walmart’s $140 laptop so you wouldn’t have to [arstechnica.com]
Also, Windows 10 doesn't do so well with 32 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM.
Here's a video review of an EVOO tablet with a fucked keyboard [youtube.com]. Also has a nice shot of fingerprints inside of the device.
On the other hand, the "Motile" brand is where Walmart shined. Laptops like this one [slickdeals.net] were well-regarded, with the exception of the single-channel RAM.
Walmart also has "ONN" branded tablets. Probably similar quality to EVOO, I don't remember.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @01:14AM (4 children)
Say what you want about those shitty ass craptops, but I love myself some Extra Virgin Olive Oil thank you very much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @01:44AM (2 children)
Vaseline is beneath you, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @07:16PM (1 child)
olive oil is lickable. vaseline: not so much.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday September 18 2020, @08:59PM
you can always cook with the leftover oil..
Vaseline, not so much.. [youtube.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 18 2020, @02:49PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @02:45AM
My guess would be Apple.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2020, @03:36AM
Well we're movin' on up (movin on up)
To the east side (movin on up)
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin' on up (movin on up)
To the east side (movin on up)
We finally got a piece of the pie.
Fish don't fry in the kitchen;
Beans don't burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin'
Just to get up that hill.
Now we're up in the big leagues
Gettin' our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it's you and me baby
There ain't nothin wrong with that.
Well we're movin' on up (movin on up)
To the east side (movin on up)
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin' on up (movin on up)
To the east side (movin on up)
We finally got a piece of the pie.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Friday September 18 2020, @02:48PM (1 child)
If it comes with Windows, then why complain about the hardware?
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday September 18 2020, @11:27PM
One big complaint about a PC that comes with Windows is the difficulty of wiping it and installing a working X11/Linux operating system. Some laptops make this easy; others are plagued with GPU, WLAN, Bluetooth, audio, backlight, and suspend issues on all major distributions. Dell and Lenovo are in my experience usually pretty good at running X11/Linux.