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Earthlink Sponsors Cheap Linux PCs

Posted by Zonk on Fri May 27, 2005 04:49 PM
from the brand-convergence-for-the-win dept.
Software The Internet Hardware Linux
prostoalex writes "Earthlink and Microtel are offering cheap Xandros-based computers to anyone who's willing to sign up for Earthlink dial-up service at $22 a month. The desktops on Microtel Web site start at $70 for a basic AMD Sempron machine, Microtel laptops start at $399. ExtremeTech says there is also a SkypeOut gift certificate: 'All Xandros PCs and laptops include free Skype-to-Skype calling worldwide, plus an exclusive bonus voucher for up to 120 minutes of SkypeOut calling to any phone number in the world.'"
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  • Seems kinda pricey given the number of laptops available on eBay. -X

  • Bill Gates (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mboverload (657893) on Friday May 27 2005, @04:53PM (#12659851) Journal
    Could Bill Gates be right about hardware costing dirt in the future? Since they are selling this on software Gates is kind of 100% right.
    • That may be true, but at least in this case he's wrong wrt the price of software.
    • Of course he's right, but its not happening because he said it.

      Mobile phone companies have been like this for years, its just an expansion of that.
    • Honestly, a monkey and an organ grinder could have predicted this. Hardware was one of the boundries for entering the computer market in the past, but now with Cell phones, in-car GPS systems, and everywhere else you see ubiquitious computing machines, you begin to pay less for the hardware (and ironically, the software too!), and more for the support contracts of those platforms, whether they be cellular service, special GPS-like network access, or radio access.

      Just worries me because some day in the fut

  • A Nice Move (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hoka (880785) on Friday May 27 2005, @04:56PM (#12659871)
    I'm glad that more companies are starting to pick up on cheap hardware combined with free software. This will be great for the "moms and pops" who don't care about what they use as long as it works. By offering lots of cheap (with specific hardware) companies can reduce costs for support since there arn't options. It's undercutting the competition just like Ford did, you can have "any color you want, as long as its black". Looking at the specs on the system they don't seem that bad, comparable to a deal Frys had a few weekends ago where you could pick up a full system for $100 (Sempron, CD-Rom, Harddrive, case etc). Some ram upgrade and those machines would probably be plenty for most users.

  • This could be great for Grandmas (Score:3, Interesting)

    by putko (753330) on Friday May 27 2005, @04:56PM (#12659872) Homepage Journal
    If they make it so simple that they send it to you, you plug it in, and it works, that's really great for unsophisticated computer users.

    I wish them the best of luck.
      • Do grandmas play games?

        If the software sold with the box comes with solitaire or other stupid games, that probably enough for unsophisticated users.

        A lot of people don't want to be bothered with installing anything -- that's one of M$'s advantages.

        If you just want a box that allows you to surf, do some basic word processing and make free "phone calls", this looks barely good enough and quite convenient.

  • Free hardware and Free software beat that billy boy...
    • When Billy hears about this, I bet he craps his pants.

      There's the potential here for a chunk of the market (unsophisticated cheapos) to have their entire computer experience be non-Micro$oft.

      It is really hard to compete with such a business -- MSN will have to start cannibalizing the main franchise, and that just won't happen.

      Although I hate Earthlink and their goddman telemarketers, this really, really makes me happy today.
  • I understand the purpose of this, however I cringe whenever I see dialup being promoted into longevity.

    The internet content of today chokes on dialup. The internet content of the future will not be able to live without broadband.... so why promote expanded use of any kind of dialup? Are we still in an age where there are enough people without broadband (or the cash to afford it) that we must cater in this fashion? Should this be so, efforts to bring prices down in the broadband market and increased effo
    • The internet content of today chokes on dialup. The internet content of the future will not be able to live without broadband.... so why promote expanded use of any kind of dialup?

      Don't be so self-absorbed. Lots of people in the U.S. still don't have internet access at home; many don't want it. Many don't want anything more than email and the occasional browsing for information (news, sports scores, movie times, baking recipes).

      "Logic" like yours is the same that pushes for insanely powerful computers

  • $22/month for dialup? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tackhead (54550) on Friday May 27 2005, @05:01PM (#12659915)
    > [$69.99] with a 12 month EarthLink membership subscription at $21.95 per month

    Well, at least it's running Linux. Because on dialup, it'd probably take at least 12 months to download the patches to secure XP.

    If you've got $21.95/month for dialup, but don't have an extra $2-4/month for DSL from your phone provider (or $20/month from your cable provider), you've got no business spending $333.39 ($69.99 + 12 * 21.95) or "$69.99" for a low-end PC with no monitor.

    Use $300 to buy a year's worth of broadband, and with the remaining cash, support your nearest surplus store ($50) or computer recycler ($10), garage sale ($50), or even lighten the load on your apartment's dumpster ($0.00).

    • If you've got $21.95/month for dialup, but don't have an extra $2-4/month for DSL from your phone provider (or $20/month from your cable provider),

      I want some of what you're smoking.

      $30/month for DSL (on top of POTS) but that only applies if you use one of the LOC's partner ISPs -- which often doesn't include Earthlink.

      For cable, you're looking at $40/month for basic cable plus the same $30/month, except this time you have to use the cable company as your ISP, so Earthlink is locked out altogether.

    • Well, at least it's running Linux. Because on dialup, it'd probably take at least 12 months to download the patches to secure XP.

      Umm, I hate to break it to you, but every month I have to download about 200MB of updated RPMs for the various Mandrake and Redhat distros I run/admin. It's fine on broadband, but it is in no way a lower volume of updates than XP.

  • All Xandros PCs and laptops include free Skype-to-Skype calling worldwide

    Wow, that's generous! Now if only their internet access offered free access to CNN.com and slashdot.org, worldwide, I'd be putting in my order right away! :^)
  • I worked for an out sourced call center for Earthlink in late 03. At that time, Earthlink didn't support Linux at all.

    I had about 3 calls about people wanting to set up Kppp, but I was told by my supervisor to not say anything but "Earthlink does not support any linux distribution"

    One other call was someone calling for a number, but at the time we had to ask what OS they were using, and I did as my supervisor told me to do....

    Right after I gave the statement, the caller gave me an ass chewing, saying t
    • Odd.

      I worked for Earthlink in '99, at one of their in house call centers, and we had a very limited linux support. Essentially we could tell them what files to modify, and what should be in them. Anything beyond that (like if they said "how do I edit a file? I can't figure out vi!"), and we had to stop the support.

      Of course, if the caller was proficient at using any technology, he could have easily gotten a local number from the automated support service on the 800 number. Perhaps he just liked waitin
    • I worked for them from whenever they acquired Mindspring until some time in '02 (I'd actually been with Netcom, then Mindspring, then Earthlink), when I got fed up and left...but I was in the hosting group, and we really didn't bother with who was running what, given that we only cared about their sites working (and only tenuously so, at that)...

      Why do I mention this? Well, not only did Earthlink not support Linux externally, they didn't support it internally, either...the hosting and dedicated groups bot
  • I thought for sure AOL was going to offer something like this after they purchased Netscape a long time ago. Imagine if Joe user's pc is mangled; the ISP rep says "insert the recover CD into your machine and reboot" which is some kind of live distro that lets the ISP guy log into the machine remotely (no matter how mangled the OS may be) and fix the machine or even possibly restore the OS back to the default.
  • I noticed that the $399 machine comes with a VIA C3 CPU, which I found interesting...

    Has anybody got any numbers/benchmarks showing the C3 performances/power consumption versus Intel/AMD CPUs?

    And, more importantly has anybody actually bought one of these machines, tested it, and installed something other than Xandros on it? OpenBSD and Slackware comes to mind, but any other distribution would also be interesting...

  • This sounds familiar (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wallykeyster (818978) on Friday May 27 2005, @05:16PM (#12660041)
    Didn't PeoplePC try and fail at this just a few years ago? I don't remember if they were using Windows on the boxes, but the business model of dial-up and "free" computers didn't pan out then. What has changed?
    • PeoplePC was just too early to market.

      The computers they offered cost them too much, and they spent far too much maintaining their network. Basically, their massive overhead destroyed their profitability.

      Fast forward to 2005: The cost of hardware has dropped substantially, and Linux has matured enough to be useable for the average person. Couple that with the minimal overhead involved in connecting these users to the existing Earthlink network, and the possibility of profitability is far higher.

      Of course
      • Of course, many people have been saying for years that computers would one fday be like cellphones. When I bought my first one, I spent $1500 on the phone and another $100 a month for fuzzy local service. Last year I replaced both mine and my wifes phones for $0 and a promise to maintain $50 monthly service for two years. The phones themselves have become a commodity and are no longer a profit center...they're simply used to drive subscriptions.

        Your analogy holds on the other side of it too. There are sti

  • It will be interesting to see if Earthlink/Xandros keeps selling this unit (or ones like it) in perpetuity. If Earthlink can make money on a low-dollar, low monthly subscription Linux desktop, then it proves that Linux is ready for the masses. With the high cost of tech support calls, any technology that is not drop-dead simple becomes a money-losing nightmare for the provider.

    I'm going to watch this experiment carefully because, if it succeeds, then Linux desktop share should climb significantly.
  • So let me get this straight.. I pay $263 to Earthlink to save $150 from microtel? Hrmmmm.
  • It worked so well for PeoplePC and freepc.com. They'll be losing money on every unit, but heck, they'll make it up on volume, right?

    What the mom-n-pop's-mom-n-pop crown really need is a machine that skips the os and boots straight to Yahoo!

  • Button Stealing (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Zoc_All_Alone (177585) on Friday May 27 2005, @05:21PM (#12660108) Homepage
    It's a little unnerving when I view their website and realize they stole their "Customize It" buttons from Dell.

    • Re:Button Stealing (Score:4, Informative)

      by syukton (256348) on Friday May 27 2005, @07:48PM (#12661242)
      It's important to qualify "stole" here.

      Their sizes are identical. 1423 bytes.

      Did a "save as" with firefox.

      >fc /b img.aspx.gif icon_customize_it.gif
      Comparing files img.aspx.gif and ICON_CUSTOMIZE_IT.GIF
      FC: no differences encountered

      img.aspx.gif is from the Dell Home website. The other is from Microtel.

      hmm.

  • Under 'processer', it says 'AMD 2.0GHz Sempron Processor 2200+'.

    Do even a tiny ammount of Googling, and you will see that the Sempron 2200+ is a 1.5 ghz chip. So, this means one of two things... either A) they're blatently lying about the clockspeed, or B) they're pre-overclocking the chips... which is the case?

    If they're saying it's equivelant to a 2.0 ghz Intel chip in speed (which most AMD fans, myself included, would agree with), that's one thing. If they're pre-overclocking the chips, that's another

  • Even the Windows versions come with OpenOffice (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rob Y. (110975) on Friday May 27 2005, @05:28PM (#12660164)
    Some nice things about these boxes:

    They're actually cheaper with Xandros than with XP. Not by much, but I guess that means they're actually paying Xandros and not Microsoft.

    They all come with OpenOffice. Even the versions with WinXP. And MS Office is clearly listed as a (very) pricey option.

    This makes it very clear that, even for users not ready to adopt Linux, there are big cost savings to be had by adopting OOo.

    Now if all vendors would start offering Firefox and OOo on their boxes (with or without WinXP), that might make a real splash.

  • Good move, Linux = $$$ (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xiando (770382) on Friday May 27 2005, @05:31PM (#12660195) Homepage Journal
    1. Get customer to sign up and get a cheap computer
    2. Get customer hooked on your service and *SUPPORT*
    3. Years go by
    4. ???
    5. Profit !!!

    Linux is not that easy to use and they will surely need to provide some support, but the profit in having the customer this hooked on your support is probably worth it.

  • Earthlink + Skype? (Score:3, Funny)

    by sydsavage (453743) on Friday May 27 2005, @05:34PM (#12660223)
    I'm sure that skype is going to work great over Earthlink dialup.
  • The hardware vendors offer an instant rebate when you sign up for a one-year Earthlink account, which means they get their money back from Earthlink (likely at nearly 100% of the discount). They also get significant exposure and advertising, mostly on Earthlink's dime (they probably pay a small kickback to Earthlink for each sell that includes the Earthlink service).

    Earthlink has a new twist to differentiate themselves, charges enough for the service to break even on the additional expense in the first yea

  • Can I consider Microtel a reputable company when they blatantly steal the "Customize It" button from the Dell website?
  • Wait a minute. It isn't 1999! Wasn't PeoplePC or some other discount dialup ISP offering a service like this one back in the hey days?
    • Well said... it amazes me that Apple zealots still think Altivec is the only game in town, and that Intel only has MMX. It's true that SSE2 and SSE3 don't have catchy names, but they do the same thing as Altivec and VMX

      Um... yeah.
    • I can't say I've used the OS personally, but one thing that immediately puts me off is that they are trying to sell antivirus software [microtelpc.com] for Linux. Fair enough, if there's a problem then fix it and feel free to make money doing so, but I don't like that a company feels the need to try making people think there's a problem just to sell a service.
      • There are many good reasons to have a virus scanner installed on Linux systems: Viruses do pass by Linux boxes even if they are not infected: Linux boxes are involved in file transfers (a lot of mail servers run Linux..) and so on. It is important to be able to find Windows and other viruses for other operating systems even if they can not infect Linux.

    • Re:Xandros... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Yim (268074)
      I've had a lot of seat-time with Xandros (Corel Linux) and have been pretty impressed with its abilities out-of-the-box. It's got a decent debian style package builder, which isn't completely reliable with rpms straight-through, but works well with deb packages. 3.0.1 OC runs KDE 3.3, which isn't my cup of tea (wmaker) but works well for those used to a pure GUI environment. It lends its flexibility quite well for those who are used to a *nix environment, as it builds source just like any other, but has the
      • Let's do some math. They could get a standard cheap dial-up account for $9.99/month or they could pay $22/month for this one. That comes out to $12 more each month, or $144 each year. If you keep this service for three years (the average PC cycle), you've paid over $400 for the computer. Earthlink certainly didn't lose money on that box and they gained a subscriber that they may not have gotten otherwise.
        • I just dug up some more of the details and they lock you in to at least one year of Earthlink and charge you $70 for the basic desktop. So, even if you bolt after the first year, you've still paid over $200 for the box. I can buy the thing without the Earthlink membership [microtelpc.com] for $219, so this isn't a free (as in beer) computer. After that first year, you are less likely to change ISPs simply because of the hassle of changing email addresses and such, so they continue to sell you marked up dial-up service.
          • The deal part about this is that you're paying $200 over the course of a year, with no financing or interest charges.

            So you pay $70 for the desktop (plus shipping) and $21 per month for the dial-up service.

            I can imagine a lot of people wanting a cheap server or another pc in the home hopping on this, even if they already have broadband.

            Hell, if I needed another machine, I'd do it in a heatbeat. And I'd never log into the Earthlink account, and would cancel after a year.

    • No, I'm sure they didn't think of that at all. They are going to ship thousands of these all over creation, and then realize that they don't work. They certainly wouldn't _test_ such things out in advance.
    • It won't be the processor that'll be the problem, it'll be the motherboard. The motherboard will be a really cheap budget thing with everything onboard. Are they going to include a screen too? They must be making quite a nasty loss if they are.
    • I got a check for $55.00 by accepting a decent desktop system (for it's day) and agreeing to a 12 month contract with Earthlink. And the system I got for less than free came with Windows (windows ME). So it used to be you could get a cheap computer without having to resort to running some weird OS.

      You aren't going to be playing games on a Linux box anyways, so honestly an AMD Sempron is massive overkill. Look at the Laptop offerings for that company. VIA C3 1.2Ghz .. now that's a system you really won't be

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