Why I need a Zonbu…

So I spent most of the day wrestling with the installation of the necessary development environment so I could recompile the kernel. Then I spent a few hours playing with kernel options in order to get my network card to work.

Once I got that working I started in on getting my on-board sound to work.

As I’m fighting my way through all this it occurs to me – THIS – this continual futzing around, is exactly what I don’t want to spend my time doing. And this is exactly the problem the Zonbu box itself solves.

The Zonbu support staff do all the magic to make the box and the programs work properly, all you or I have to do is show up.

No installing/configuring/compiling/tweaking/tuning necessary.

Show up and it works.

That’s magic worth paying for.

-Mr. Zonbu

How now, brown cow?

A brief update.

I’m still working on getting my 1.1 Ghz Duron desktop working. It is going to involve recompiling the kernel to add the drivers for some of my hardware. Zonbu REALLY need to do a nice fat LiveDVD with all the drivers and developer tools ready to go for those of us who want to play.

None of this has anything to do with the actual Zonbu box, of course, but I do need to do this in order to be able to run the OS while I await delivery of my unit. Oddly, I had an email this afternoon basically confirming my order from over a week ago. Not sure what happened there… Are others receiving their units already?

On the upside, the Zonbu desktop has played every single piece of media I’ve thrown at it. Quicktime movie trailers, BBC Top Gear Real Player clips, mpeg, avi, 3gp, you name it. Very impressive and exactly what you need to be able to give this to a non-tech savvy family member. Moreover, an impressive feat for Linux, I’ve never had everything work out of the box before. They are definitely moving the bar.

A close friend of mine got a long demo from me today and he agreed it would be perfect for his mother, who is also overseas, making Windows support complex. Worse, she has some of her friends call him too, which is even more complicated support.

More to come, I hope to have my stand alone, roughly similar spec machine operating tonight and I will start blogging in more detail.

-Mr. Zonbu