Big wheels keep on turning: 5 Reasons not the fear a $200 Linux PC

News.com has a good post on the emergence of ultra low cost, Linux based, PCs.

They say:

”

Linux is not just for computer whizzes.

In fact, buying Linux and learning how to use it are easier than ever, thanks to the open-source operating system’s expanding presence in affordable computers and mainstream retail outlets.

”

Really what we’re seeing is the emergence of Firefox as a platform/OS, rather than Linux. To be honest, the principle use of these machines is as low cost web devices.  The Zonbu suddenly has A LOT of company, and only a small number of things to set it apart.

Now if it had stellar video performance and Rhapsody support, they would have some bragging rights, but as it stands, the shelves are getting awfully crowded.  Which is unfortunate, I think Zonbu has a lot of subtle things going for it, but it is going to get lost in the crowd without some real innovative partnerships and applications.

More here: http://www.news.com/Five-reasons-not-to-fear-a-200-Linux-PC/2100-1044_3-6227419.html?tag=nefd.top

-Mr. Zonbu

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S3 storage catches on, ZManda launches support for S3

Zonbu is really on to something organizing transparent online storage in partnership with the Amazon S3 storage cloud.  They aren’t the only ones doing it however.

While not nearly as slick as the transparent integration that the Zonbu OS offers, ZManda, a commercial service, is now offering corporate users the ability to backup to S3, in addition to tape and optical media.

Will it be much longer before someone does a tool for Ubuntu and other popular distributions that allows the end user to create folders and entire backups directly to S3 from the desktop?

You can read more over at DownloadSquad.com: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/01/11/zmanda-offers-backup-to-amazons-s3/

Or on the ZManda website: http://www.zmanda.com/

-Mr. Zonbu

Gentoo project in disarray?

This commentary from the latest Distrowatch Weekly Newsletter over at Distrowatch.com seems to suggest the Gentoo project remains mired in disarray:

Gentoo Linux made the headlines last week and once again it was for the wrong reasons. It appears that the Gentoo Foundation’s charter as a non-profit organisation was revoked several weeks ago, when it was discovered that all except two trustees had resigned or were unreachable: “There has not been any public explanation from the Foundation’s trustees as to why this was allowed to happen, or what steps are being taken, if any, to fix this. This is very bad for the morale of the Gentoo community.” The founder of Gentoo also offers a solution – his return as President of Gentoo Foundation: “If I return as President, I will preserve the not-for-profit aspect of Gentoo. Beyond this, you can expect everything to be very, very different than how things are today.” The response by the Gentoo community was mixed – some launched a petition supporting the return of Robbins as the project’s benevolent dictator, but others seem to be against the idea. Whatever your opinion, one thing is clear: a radical solution is needed to take Gentoo Linux out of the current quagmire. Failing that, the latest news item on the Gentoo Linux home page — announcing the October 15 weekly newsletter — could be the project’s very last news release.

Regular readers will we well aware that I think there is significant business risk in continuing with a Gentoo base for Zonbu, so I won’t add anything new here, other than to say it doesn’t look good for Gentoo.

Distrowatch Weekly Newsletter here: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080114

-Mr. Zonbu

gOS Cloudbook and other Everex CES announcements

Over at CNET’s CES Coverage area they have a bief update on the Everex Cloudboox running gOS. Take a look here:

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-13855_1-9846075-67.html?tag=head

On the hardware side, the $199 gPC is getting updated with new plastics. It will be joined by a slick mini PC at $499 and a $399 notebook with a 15.4″ screen, the gBook. All of the gOS machines are powered by Via chips, except the mini, which gets a dual-core Pentium (not Core 2 Duo).

The real news, though, is the Everex CloudBook, a 2-pound ultra-small laptop with a 7″ screen, 30GB hard drive, a Webcam, and good connectivity (WiFi, 3 USB ports, 4-in-1 card reader). It “out-specs” the Asus ePC, according to Everex, and will sell for $399 when it shows up at WalMart on January 20th.

-Mr. Zonbu

EEE Officially Skype 2.0 with webcam support, works great

This weekend I decided to do a package update on my EEE PC. I’ve resisted adding non-official repositories and generally doing geeky things to it as I wanted to compare the typical end user experience with that of the Zonbu.

To date, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed with the lack of updates. Firefox is still 2.0.0.7 and various other apps are older as well. The update function in the “basic” interface is a bit confusing and didn’t seem to be working consistently for me, but I soldiered on.

Philips launches embedded Rhapsody radios

The Rhapsody “all you can eat” subscription music service keeps going from strength to strength.

At CES this week Real Networks announced a partnership with Philips that will see the service emebedded in a number of new Internet enabled radio systems.

This is a bold move and it means you no longer need a PC active on your network in order to access your Rhapsody account. I’m seriously thinking about buying one, as I hate having to power my PC to enjoy my music via Rhapsody on my Roku Soundbridge. Dollar for dollar this may be the best option.

Beauty: ZonbuOS not meeting basic photo management needs

The beauty is not happy tonight.  Which means Mr. Zonbu isn’t happy.

After putting the baby to bed, the Beauty sat down to deal with some of the dozens of recent photos on our digital camera.

She plugged in her SD card reader to the USB slot and waited.

She heard a brief sound but no wizard popped up. She waited a minute or two then said to me that it wasn’t working.

I asked her why she thought that and she said she didn’t get any wizard to help her import the photos…

The Zonbu Desktop just feels right…

I’m using my Zonbu desktop again this morning, after a stint using the EEE PC around the house. The odd screen size on the EEE PC and the chiclet keyboard become an issue for anything more than a few minutes of use (at least for me). However, the <30s boot time is very appealing. The Zonbu could benefit from an SSD disk for the OS.

The Zonbu OS experience is still the smoothest, easiest to use, most “complete” feeling Linux desktop experience I’ve had. It just feels “right”. It’s a shame there isn’t a LiveCD so people can try it before signing up for the subscription. I think this could go a long way to opening up new markets.

It’s hard to quantify exactly what I mean, but they really have done an exceptional job putting the OS together. I have a few small gripes about rough edges, but overall it is an exceptional software product.  And knowing some one else is actively taking care of things “under the hood” and ensuring application updates are pushed out on a regular basis is lovely.  So is knowing my data is backed up somewhere in the Internet cloud.

The Zonbu team should be very proud of their achivements in this regard.

Now if the hardware was just more modern…

-Mr. Zonbu

PS -Happy new year to all our readers.  Since inception we’ve now had almost 70K page views.

Econonmist: Ubuntu driving force behind Linux in 2008

Over at CNET.com they have an interesting piece on an article in the Economist that largely credits the anticipated increased rise in Linux adoption in 2008 to the work done by Canonical on Ubuntu and its acceptance on the desktop.

From the CNet post:

That’s largely the doing of Gutsy Gibbon, the code-name for the Ubuntu 7.10 from Canonical….Ubuntu (and its siblings Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu) has smoothed most of Linux’s geeky edges while polishing it for the desktop.

EEE PC and Hotcakes, Aisle 3

I just saw this and wanted to pass it along. I’d love to know how it compares to the unit sales of the Zonbu product to date.

Of course, the Zonbu hardware means getting people to accept a fundamentally different approach with a monthly fee, which is always a challenge.  And, to be honest, after playing with my Eee for a week it is really a very different product, but still something that can threaten Zonbu sales…

“Taipei (Taiwan) – Asustek has managed to take their Eee little PC and turn it into big sales numbers. In the first quarter of sales, the Eee PC shipped 350,000 units, which is 50,000 more than industry experts’ predictions. The Eee PC will be available at Best Buy in U.S. in 2008, and also in Japan at the same time. They are also available for online sales right now.”

More here: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35385/122/

I said it before, I’ll say it again.  I’d be benchmarking seriously against this device, the gOS PC, and the N8x0 series tablets as well as an Acer entry level laptop.  Those are the products that can will  are stealing sales from Zonbu.

-Mr. Zonbu