The $US279 Zonbu Notebook is the latest offering from the Open Source computer company—following up on the $US99 Zonbu Desktop released earlier this year. The software is the same OS seen on the desktop, updated with a few new features such as real time data syncing. But the question remains: Does Zonbu find the sweet spot between solid performance and an entry level price? More »
We’ve had our hands on these super-green Linux-and-Via powered babies for a little while, but now it’s your turn. Even though the beta program is expected to run until September, Zonbu is confident that the hardware on 1.0 is locked. That’s why today, the company started selling the little box, but will cover the first three months of software support, technically a beta run, for free. More »
I got time with the Zonbu, a $99 Linux PC that is amazingly as simple to use as a Mac. That’s because it’s preloaded with best-of-breed open source software for almost anything you’d need, all managed via the other cool thing the Zonbu has: A 4GB CF card that acts as a cache for the 25-100GB of personal storage on Amazon’s S3 servers. In other words, this machine syncs, swaps, backs up your data automatically, over the wire. I love it.
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There’s a cheap computer on the way that undercuts them all, the $99 Zonbu, due this summer in a silent-running form factor that’s about the size of a paperback book. It has 4GB of flash memory on board, and automatically backs up a copy of your data online. Besides that $99 purchase price, you’ll also pay $12.95 a month (for 25GB,scales up to 100GB for more money) to store its data on the Zonbu servers, giving you the ability to compute anywhere with this tiny device, or access your data from other PCs. If you don’t commit to a service plan, the little PC costs $250.
Of course, you’ll have to buy a keyboard, monitor and mouse for this diminutive computer, and you’ll need a broadband Internet connection, too, but the company says its little Gentoo Linux-based mini PC has all of the applications most people ever need already preloaded. This sounds intriguing, but what applications are included, and can you actually get any work done with it?
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