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For $12.95 a Month, Zonbu Gives You a PC!

by Terrence O'Brien on July 19, 2007 at 02:11 PM

Zonbu's Small Green PC Costs $99... Kinda
If the previously mentioned Everex available through Wal-Mart isn't green or cheap enough for you, then Zonbu -- a new subscription-based PC service -- may be right up your alley. For about $12.95 a month, Zonbu provides subscribers with the Zonbox, a diminutive little box of a PC that completely embraces the concept of online computing by ditching the traditional internal hard drive for 4-gigabytes of Flash storage. It also leaves behind Windows in favor of a custom-built version of Linux, which tends to be smoother than other operating systems.

According to Zonbu, the Zonbox is also a green computer, thanks to its small size, which uses up half the energy of a light bulb. Zonbu also offers a recycling program should you decide to turn in your computer.

The basic PC runs you only $99 upfront, but you'll also need to sign up for a two-year contract to Zonbu's online storage and support plan, which is $12.95 a month for 25-gigabytes of online storage, or $20 a month for 100-gigabytes (better if you've got a lot of music and movies).

Opting out of the monthly service will bump up the price to of the PC to $249 (for the "Community" box), which is still a good deal cheaper than most PCs. The "community" box lets you install your own programs (unlike the subscription box, which is given access to a bunch of Zonbu-provided programs for word processing, media watching and management, and the like.) The support plan means you'll always be taken care of should there be a problem.

So the ultra-green, ultra compact $99 PC really isn't $99 over the course of two years. But it also isn't much more than a lot of entry-level PCs. If continual tech support, no-hassle program updates, and energy-savings for less than $600 sounds good to you, Zonbu might be for you. Anyone looking for more serious computing power should probably hold off.

From Engadget

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Tags: linux, via, zonbu

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