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