Goodbye Microsoft? Goodbye Windows? Zonbu!

[RushIsRot]

http://www.zonbu.com/

Has anyone heard of Zonbu? Does anyone have experience with this company? It looks FAR too good to be true.

Bring me back to earth -- gently.

If that link does not work, just Google zonbu.

[Deja Q]

1. Why are they leeching off open source?

Open source should not be exploited; it hurts many legitimate programmers. Which sadly includes Microsoft, but large or small, people gravitate for free. Or lower cost. When entities sell free at a lower cost to competitors (or in some cases higher), surely they are exploiting a realm not envisioned for that sort of activity?

[Kutjara]

2. The GNU license permits commercial exploitation, as long...

...as source code and developer credits are included in any software sold. As you know, the "free" in free software is as in speech, not as in beer.

Zonbu have a section of their website talking about how they support Open Source software and contribute to various ongoing projects. The OS they use is based on Gentoo and the applications are the typical assortment of OpenOffice.org, Evolution, Firefox, etc. that you find with most distributions.

All they're doing is exploring a new revenue model for buying PCs. After all, even if you're going to run Linux, you still have to pay for the PC.

I don't see them doing anything that violates the spirit of Open Source.

[Deja Q]

3. Darn.

Oh well. :)

[RushIsRot]

4. But, the hardware is kinda inexpensive too. You could get the

open-source software in a download just as easily as having it pre-loaded, couldn't you?

[Kutjara]

5. Zonbu don't provide downloads of their particular flavor of Gentoo Linux...

...or the applications they include because, as they say, the software is freely available on the Web.

The reason Zonbu think you should buy their product is because of the whole package. You get a computer, fully loaded and ready to go for a small purchase price. You also get support, updates, online data backup, and even web access to your data for a small monthly fee. The idea is that the computer takes care of itself, without requiring the user to know anything about patches, drivers, or any other techie thing.