You've Got PC

freitasm writes "Geekzone is reporting on the AOL Optimized PC, a 2GHz Intel Celeron PC with 256MB RAM and 50GB ATA-100 HDD. It'll cost US$299.99 from Office Depot stores, with a commitment of 12-month AOL subscription. More information on AOL Optimized website." There's also a Reuters story.

basic... very basic.

[ack154]

$299.99 + (12 months * $23.90/month) = $299.99 + $286.80 = enough to buy a decent PC without having to go with a full year of AOL (it also == $586.79 for those of you adding at home).

Though I suppose it is actually on target, if someone only has $300 and can afford the $24/month payment, it might be a simple way to get a PC a little "cheaper" up front. Just too bad it has to be AOL.

Full list of features:

# Processor: Intel Celeron Processor 2 GHz
# Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (pre-installed)
# Memory: 256MB RAM
# Hard Drive: 40GB, ATA 100, 5400 rpm
# Optical Drive: 52x CD-ROM
# Network: 10/100MB Ethernet
# Modem: 56K v.92
# Ports: Four USB 2.0 Ports (two front, two back)
# Monitor: 17" CRT monitor (minimum 15.7" viewable)
# Printer: Lexmark Color Inkjet Printer
# Peripherals: Standard Multimedia Keyboard, Two-button Wheel Mouse, Speakers
# Additional Pre-Installed Software: AOL Office suite of spreadsheet, word processing and presentation software; AOL 9.0 Optimized Internet service, the latest version of the AOL and AOL Latino services

'cuz it's worked so well in the past

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't we seen this done at least three times in the past? And hasn't it always been pay cash, give false info, walk away?
It's not a damn cell phone you idjits.

You have got!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

That annoying phrase is not proper english. One can not "have got" something.. I word "got" does not belong in that statement.

Re:'cuz it's worked so well in the past

[John Bodin]

The system is not stocked in store but will be shipped to what ever address you give them at the time you sign up for the AOL service. Which is done in the store.

Reminds me of the old Q-Link trick

[g00z]

Not that there is anything new to the whole "Get a serious discount on hardware if you get a subscription to [fill in blank] online service", but for some reason this one is interesting coming from AOL, since back when they we're Quantum Link (The old commodore 64 online service back in the 80's) they did a similar thing.

Back in the Q-link days, not to many folks had modems or could really afford them, so Q-link's hook to get you to sign up with them was that they would offer you a heavily discounted 300 baud modem when you signed up for Q-link. This seems like a no brainier these days, but back then it was really something because most online services like Playnet, GEnie, Compuserve, etc all charged you a setup fee AND charged you like $30 for their software.

So, like I said, not that this is new, it's REALLY not new for AOL.

Man do I ever still pine for the days of Q-link and Club Carribe.

Re:basic... very basic.

[proj_2501]

RTFA, the article summary is wrong.

Dear God, Why?

[TheSpoom]

Is it just me or does this seem equivalent to signing away your soul to Satan?

I do tech support for HP. AOL uses their own drivers to connect to their network, and also block off the Properties page of their connection. Thus, we cannot enable the Windows XP firewall, so God help someone who hasn't patched their machine (luckily I can get around this by installing Norton Personal Firewall, which is usually included with our machines). I've also heard that if you want, AOL will sell you a firewall for $3 extra a month or something. So to sum up: Block free included product, sell own (probably inferior) product.

Not to mention that AFAIK their entire technical support division is stationed in India, and I think they have a 3 minute call length limit or something. Whenever people call me and say they were referred to us by AOL, I roll my eyes and ask what AOL actually did before referring them to us. 90% of the time, they did NOTHING. They didn't have them click on anything, they didn't check any settings, and they most certainly did not reinstall their own software. "It's a problem with the modem." "It's a problem with the computer." I've actually heard from customers where they had to hand up on the AOL tech because they didn't take the referral to us and he actually started yelling at the customer! And this service is worth $20+ a month?! God help the person who buys this PC and is RELEGATED to these people...

Please, if you use AOL, consider switching to another provider. You're worth more than what they give you.

Re:basic... very basic.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get a shitty computer from Evil Satan [walmart.com] for the same price, without the contract.

Re:welcome to commoditisation

[jhunsake]

How about reading the AOL website, dipshit.

"Systemax AOL Intel Celeron 2.0GHz / Microsoft Windows XP Home / 17-inch CRT / 256MB DDR / 40GB HDD / CD-ROM / Lexmark Ink Jet Printer / 1 Year Warranty / Desktop PC"

or further down,

"Of course, the AOL Systemax PC runs on the award-winning Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system for incomparable performance and stability."

or even further down,

"Specifications Operating Systems Windows XP Home Edition"

Re:Entry level and AOL Office == Open Office?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you go to the FAQ on the aol page it tells you that it is an office product from sun microsystems, so they obviously liscensed staroffice, and put their name on it.

Random semi-on-topic AOL rant..

[t_allardyce]

My Casio PDA had a large AOL setup program built into the ROM. Even in the unlikely event that i would have needed it i would only have ever used it once! Bloody idiots wasted all that space instead of including some useful software.

Re:Aren't those terms mutually exclusive?

[g00z]

It's even funnier than you think.

For those that aren't aware, this whole "optimized" craze is a reference to something real evil that AOL has been doing for years: having dial up users connect to proxy servers that compress the living fuck out of any image requested from a web page.

Sound like a good idea, no? Make all the images smaller in size so pages load faster. As a friend of mine put it, "Doesn't AOL realize that people like to look at porn?"

If it was some light compression it would be one thing, but images look like something my cat hacks up on the floor after getting in the garbage once AOL "optimizes" them.

Re:basic... very basic.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

If you're going to evaluate the real value of this deal then price up a similar spec PC and include a 12-month subscription to a ISP on par with AOL in terms of service

Yes okay, let's do that:

AOL box:

1 x piss-poor PC: $299
1 x full year of AOL: $286.80
= $586.79, as the parent poster kindly calculted

Similar offering, not AOL:

1 x piss-poor PC, but probably better than AOL's: $350
1 x full year of any cheapo dialup ISP, but probably better than AOL: $180
= $530.00

So AOL worth an extra $56.79? I think not...

Re:Monitor and printer.

[kayak334]

Yeah, I just priced the equivalent on pricewatch [pricewatch.com]

Celeron 2.0: $60
256MB DDR: $33
40GB HDD: $31
52x CD-ROM: $10
Lexmark Printer: $29
17" CRT: $74

Total: $237

Note that total doesn't include XP license or a 1 year warrenty. You make a good point about people spending the money on an internet connection anyway, but if this is their 2nd PC and they are just connecting it to an existing network, it becomes much cheaper without AOL involved.

Re:basic... very basic.

[hal2814]

"a ISP on par with AOL in terms of service"

Well, the $10 a month ISP my grandmother uses now is a lot better than AOL in terms of service. Do you know of any cheaper ISPs I can use with the abysmal service of AOL I can use for an accurate comparison?

This sort of thing fizzled out in the past. Remember the big money off for agreeing to commitments to ISPs? I don't think this will help AOL any more than it helped MSN or CompuServe.

Re:basic... very basic.

[ack154]

Right, but after the AOL payments, it's almost $600. You can easily get a PC with monitor under that right now. However, the only benefits are that you pay less up front, and get an ISP, but still...

Re: your Sig.

[stratjakt]

This has been discussed. It's not some conspiracy theory or sneaky DNS redirect.

If you type in a non-valid URL, Firefox automagically does a "I'm feeling lucky" search on what you typed. The first result comes back microsoft.com, for whatever reason.

Verify this yourself by typing the same thing into google and hitting search/lucky.

Re:welcome to commoditisation

[mr_z_beeblebrox]

I wonder how much of that $299 is for the Windows license?

60$ is the OEM price (per each) for a small distributor (couple thousand PCs) I have no idea what AOLs price point would be but 40-50$ sounds like a good guess.

Re:basic... very basic.

[bonkedproducer]

My mother uses JOI internet for a whopping $6.95 a month and consistantly gets better connection speed, never a busy signal, better e-mail, and faster support and service than she ever got when she was an AOLer, so what is the point here?

Re:Entry level and AOL Office == Open Office?

[5amTheButcher]

Here's the full excerpt - seems to be StarOffice:

What software is included with the system?
Along with AOL 9.0 Optimized, the system comes with AOL Office, powered by Sun.

What is AOL Office, powered by Sun?
This is a full suite of productivity tools that can open, edit and save documents in a variety of formats, including Microsoft® Office. AOL Office contains four main applications: AOL Office Writer (for text documents), AOL Office Calc (for spreadsheets), AOL Office Impress (for presentations) and AOL Office Draw graphics).

What is AOL Office Writer?
AOL Office Writer is a word processing program that helps you create many types of documents such as reports, greeting cards, letters and more.

What is AOL Office Calc?
AOL Office Calc is a spreadsheet application that you can use to organize and manipulate data that contains numbers, such as a household budget.

What is AOL Office Impress?
AOL Office Impress provides tools to help you create attractive presentations and slide shows. You can use Impress to show presentations on your computer or print them out.

What is AOL Office Draw?
AOL Office Draw lets you create simple and complex drawings. You can also insert tables, charts, formulas and other items created in AOL Office programs into your drawings.

AOL pushing free office software... I wonder if they are providing tech support for it as well. You could buy one AOL OPTIMIZED PC for the office, install StarOffice on all the computers, and then abuse AOL Tech support for all your MS -> Sun compatibility problems...

It's been done

[PetoskeyGuy]

# Keyboard: with LOL, OMG, >_< and WTF keys

Most important feature, that.

It's been done. Not only that it's been patented. :o)

US Patent 6,629,793 The Emoticon Keyboard [uspto.gov]

For Comparison

[krgallagher]

This is the cut rate system from Walmart [slashdot.org].

Hardware details: * AMD Athlon 2000 Processor * 128 MB DDR RAM * Expandable up to 1 GB RAM * 40 GB hard drive * Includes keyboard, mouse, stereo speakers and Ethernet interface (does not include monitor) * Supports onboard AMD Duron processor * Supports 200 MHz front-side bus * Supports integrated 256 MB SDRAM onboard * Shared memory architecture allows a maximum of 64 MB main memory to act as frame buffer * Linare PC comes with the following types of support: phone, e-mail and web * Includes a 1-year warranty return to manufacturer * Model AD2000 * Supports high resolutions up to 1920 x 1440 Software details: * Linare Linux * Linux-based operating system * KDE: powerful graphical desktop environment * OpenOffice Office Suite * Mozilla browser * Mozilla e-mail

Re:At 299, I have to wonder...

[Obiwan Kenobi]

Ugh. This is a nice and clueless comment. Why? Because AOL PCs are for people who want games (first on the list, look at the sales for Deer Hunter), email, games, a few office programs, and web games.

If you've met the type of AOL user I'm used to, the kind that download anything they can find from AOL games and/or PopCap, including whatever ridiculous games that are included in email attachments, which include viruses, you know that Linux is not an option here.

This is a post that gets moderated high because it praises Linux. But in the real world, the world that I live in and have to support anything from clueless users to family members, Linux is nowhere near an option for AOL users.

I love Linux, but built for AOL-ers it is not (at this point).