Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
--
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