FAQin n00bz !!

HP should counter with the 'nothing in life is free, Duh!' defence.

So HP sent the Chinese overpriced computers and the Chinese sent lead poisoned products and tainted pet food in return, sounds like the Chinese still came out ahead on this.

To even things up have AOL send them some of those floppy disks from the 90s for 'free internet'.

I want to know how many of these farmers only realized they weren't getting a deal after they finally had a computer and internet?

Knowledge is power, but power in the hands of the feeble-minded is a terrible thing.

No case, move on; and while you're at it farmers, Google "Caveat Emptor".

Not a fair comparison

First of all, the $200 computer is powered by a via procesor at 1/2 the clock speed of the celeron sold to the Chinese farmers, which means they got a computer that - depending on application and the in-order vs OOO cpu - can go up to 4 times as fast (insert gOS vs Windows joke here).

Second, the $200 Wal-Mart computer wasn't available in December 2006.

So there.

Comparable desktops?

Not quite. Not in the $200 range anyway.
http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=computer&search_constraint=0&search_sort=4&ic=24_0&ref=+125875.126085+125875.126125