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AOL/Transmeta/Gateway Internet Appliance Launch
A reader writes "America Online and Gateway are launching their Linux/Transmeta internet appliance today. The webcast can be seen here." The webcast is in Real Audio - you can also find our original coverage of this, back in late May 2000.
> "...works only with Internet service provided by America Online..."
According to the AP story you posted:
"The device"..."can use either a traditional dial-up connection or, when networked with a PC, a high-speed Internet connection."
I was thinking: if it really could 'only' be used with an AOL connection, it should be trivial to see how this linux box connects to AOL, and therefore give us the ability to connect to AOL via linux (thus allowing for grandmother to use a nice OS and her favorite Online Service).
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If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed...
I don't understand any of the excitement -- apart from perhaps the Transmeta chip under the hood. There's very little difference between this toy and Compaq's new iPaq web appliance. They're both desktop/tabletop devices and they both have wires (although fewer than your standard PC.
I think what most of us would like would be a "web tablet"; something about the form factor of a tablet of paper with 802.11 connectivity to a base station of some sort.
If it weren't for the ridiculous expense of 802.11 (as Lucent is the sole provider I know of these days), I'd turn my iPaq PocketPC into a small version of what I describe above.
802.11 is too damned expensive.
I wonder if this is a genuine effort, or just an attempt to dumb down these cool technologies for the average AOL brain-dead users...
Ñ'
The true question is, how long will it take to figure out what they did, and re-code the little bugger to do what we want it to do?
:)
Also, will this be a good test of transmeta's performance finally?
What ability will there be for people to upgrade the software (netscape 6 anyone?)?
Is winamp included?
But most importantly of all (I just COULDNT resist) -- I wonder what a beowolf cluster of these would do for Seti@home?
:)
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
And unless you have an rj-11 jack and power source near the toilet, you won't be flaming with this device either. This device is not a portable device like the much-touted wireless WebPads will be, this is a table-top device with a footprint that allows you to use it in places besides the typical office desk. You don't be carrying this into the kitchen to do a grocery list unless you want to power the unit down, unplug it, carrry it into the kitchen, plug it in, power it up, etc.
Lord knows every other internet appliance has failed miserably. Netpliance an nounced that they will be getting out of the business, Virgin has bailed out (and yes Virginia, the bios password was hacked within 24 hours of that announcement), WebPods had all of 300 subscribers, etc. Somehow, the lack of local hard storage to store stuff plus (frequently) a poor isp service, doomed these guys. I wonder if this guy will be any different?
AOL is using Linux in their latest attempt to take over the world. We must stop developing Linux immediately, or else we'll be doing their dirty work for them!
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Gateway
Sure, it doesn't have any local storage, etc. but this is exactly what most older or less technically inclined people are looking for. I can already see Grandmas lining up to get at these things. Knowing that their trusty grandson/daughter geek won't have to come over and set anything up like they would with a pesky computer. They also won't have to worry about any of those annoying worms/trojan horse/MS macro or script viruses. For the ignorant internet user this is the ideal solution. The people who will flock to these are either already AOL users or have many friends/relatives who are. With two well known (to the common person) companies behind it these have a lot more going for them than any of the others. All of the failures so far have either been a) unheard of start-ups or b) well known for other things and people just weren't sure anout this new venture.
Of course, this is all just in theory.
It's LINUX! IT RULES!!
what? It's AOL?!?
It's AOL! IT SUCKS!
Did you say Transmeta?
OH GOD! WHAT DO I DO?!?!
Sure. See the picture here.
And apparently it will connect to AOL through a broadband ISP hookup, so disabling the connection to AOL shouldn't be too hard. A hard drive will probably be harder, but if you can instead get it to work as an X terminal...
There's no "we" in team, only "me"
According to the page here: on Gateway's site, it has built in home-phoneline networking. This is rather useful for many people, although lots of /. readers probably have cat-5 strung around (and /. readers probably wouldn't want to use this unless it could be hacked to not use AOL. although if it was just aol's browser, and not their service, it wouldn't be that bad for a device to give to family members to keep them off your PC).
In addition, it has optional ethernet, and dial up (V90). So I don't think you're too limited here for connectivity.
BTW, lots of PC's come with home phone line networking built in. My brother's Presario 7597 has a combo v90 modem/home phone line networking card plus ethernet built in. In any case, a lot of people will be able to plug these devices into their pc's pretty easily to share a broadband connection.
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The reason why the unit is priced at $600 is that it costs a fair bit of money to put together:
Consider the pricing on PDAs; this unit potentially does a lot more than the Compaq iPAQ units that are priced at around $500.
I don't disagree that the price is pretty painful; the point is that Portability Costs. You can't take that $500 AMD K6-based system into the bathroom and flame people on Slashdot whilst "on the throne." You can't carry it into the kitchen and write up a list of groceries to get. Lots of can'ts there.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Hey, now when script kiddies break in, they'll hear "You've got root!"..
-Kris
FINALLY prove that there CAN be 31337 AOL users
Yea, but you are really going to confuse a Linux user that hasn't heard the news yet.
"Yea I run LINE-NU-X"
"Cool what distro you run"
"AOL 6.0, IT IS EASIER THEN EVER"
"Uh, I don't understand, you run that buggy AIM client on it? Have you tried GAIM? Why are you shouting?"
"NO AOL LINE-NU-X 6.0!"
"Um what kernel? what proc?"
"AOL KERNEL 6.0! PROCESSER IS GATEWAY!"
"Are you sure? Do you see a bunch of clouds when you boot up?"
"WHEN I TURN ON THE MACHINE I SEE A HAPPY PENGUIN HUGGING THE AOL LOGO!!!"
"Why are you shouting, what the hell are you talking about?"
"I AM TALKING ABOUT LINE-NU-X 6.0 NO WONDER IT IS NUMBER ONE IT IS SO EASY TO USE!!!"
"Did Fred in programming down the hall set you up to this? How much did he pay you?"
"WHAT ?!?!?! FRED DOESN'T DIAL UP TO LINE-NU-X 6.0 INTERNET SERVICE!"
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -THHGTTG
...that it doesn't come with a shell, they don't give the root password, the whole thing resembles a Linux box even less than a Tivo, they might not even HAVE a root password, the board is sealed with all the pins covered in opaque hard plastic, and the permissions are set very strictly to avoid any kind of circumvention. It's possible to make a box extremely difficult to crack in software, and with a little forward thinking, make it useless if cracked in hardware.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
For those who don't feel like watching the webcast, Here's the AP story
"...works only with Internet service provided by America Online..."
Give me 5 minutes. =)
end communication