

$100 + $12.95 a month for an easy to use, environmentally friendly Linux PC - rms
http://www.zonbu.com/learn/demo.htm
I like the business model and this review: <a href="http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html" rel="nofollow">http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html</a>  says that the overall experience with this box is great.<p>Do you think they will be successful?
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willarson
I am a slightly uncomfortable about all my data automatically being backed up
over the internet, and also being accessible to me anywhere I go via the
internet. This seems like a real potential security hole.

Its great that they are focusing on creating an environmentally sound
computer, but its unfortunate that part of their strategy is buying carbon
offsets.

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ivankirigin
<http://www.zonbu.com/plans/commitment.htm> Zonbu wants to provide a fair
service to consumers. There are no hidden charges: you will not find those
obscure setup fees on your Zonbu billing. In case that you are not satisfied
with our service, you can keep the device and get a refund of your remaining
subscription balance minus the prorated portion of your Zonbu hardware rebate.
Let's take an example: if you choose the 50 GB every two year billing plan,
you initially pay $99 + 24 _$14.95 = $457.80. If you cancel the service after
six months, you keep the device and we reimburse you: $119.10 = $14.95_ 18 -
$150. Also, once your subscription terminates, you have read-only access to
your data for three months, both from your Zonbu device and from any other
remote access PC. During that time you are welcome to move your data from the
Zonbu servers to another storage solution of your choice.

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ivankirigin
"Green" is such a sales pitch, without much substance. Recycling some parts is
important. But carbon offsets don't actually offset much energy usage at all.
In fact, in subsidizing other forms of energy, people probably use more energy
from them. Even the benefit of a low-energy computer is very small when
compared to the biggest consumers of power in the home: furnace, AC, water-
heating, etc..

But I suppose the lesson is that you can leverage misconceptions.

And don't get me wrong -- I love tiny computers. An old MacMini makes a
perfect media PC. Bittorrent download boxes needn't be large also. I hope they
have a version without the subscription fee.

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rnesh
From what I've read, it looks great. I almost want to purchase one just to
play around with.

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nickb
Monthly fee? No thanks.

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acgourley
You can buy just the box for 250, also if you read their site you can buy the
box for $99 dollars + 2 year subscription, cancel the subscription, get your
money back, and keep the box. It would be tempting as a BT box, but it doesn't
have enough local storage and you don't want to torrent (directly) to network
attached storage.

