I'm tempted to hit this for their "249$ without service plan" and wipe it clean with my own distro. They must be using commodity hardware and many of those SFF PC cases start at 100$ for something 10 times the size. Small ones like the Zonbu are generally even more just for the case. So a complete Linux friendly SFF quiet environmentally friendly PC for 249$, while a bit light on the specs I wouldn't mind running a little home web/e-mail/SSH server off of it or perhaps just a mythfrontend? I think I'll do it, buy it and see if I can load my own distro by hook or by crook. I'm hoping by crook as I haven't had a good project for a while. --j Steve Cayford wrote: > Chris Frederick wrote: > >> G. Scott Walters wrote: >> >>> Anyone ever heard of Zonbu? >>> >> [...] >> > > >> Looks interesting. I've been looking at small form factor PCs for a >> while. They look very similar to these: >> >> http://logisysus.com/product/smallest-pc.htm >> >> >From the Zonbu site: >> >> Zonbu Desktop, Standard plan, Billing every two years = $412.95 >> >> Thats standard options after all discounts, plus $358.80 after two years >> for more support. Also, their "Cancel anytime policy" warns that if you >> cancel the membership service, your device will not give you access to >> your data after 3 months. They do have a free/no support option, but >> I'd probably want to talk to a sales person before I went with that. >> >> I guess it depends on what their support covers, but I don't see much >> there that strikes me as worth $180 a year. >> >> >From their site: >> >> Disaster proof storage - Very doable and cheap. >> Free automatic software upgrades - Most linux distros have this. >> Unlimited Internet support - You are reading this on a mailing list. ;-) >> Remote file access "anywhere, anytime, any browser (no plugins)" - That >> just sounds scary to me. >> Overnight free hardware replacement limited warranty - Nice, but that's >> an extra $60 a year. >> >> My $0.02 would be that everything looks nice, but personally I'd rather >> pay more up front for something without a huge service contract, or >> required membership service. >> >> ymmv, >> Chris Frederick >> > > It seems to me that there could be a pretty good market for something > like this. Not for us on this list, but for the proverbial "my > grandmother." Folks who want a web browser, email, office suite, and > some basic games and who don't want to deal with updates, spyware, > system administration, etc. Considering how much people spend on > services like Geek Squad the rates don't seem too outrageous. > > -Steve > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >