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Free IBM Computers For UK Households

Posted by timothy on from the always-a-catch dept.

Albanach writes "The Scotland on Sunday newspaper is reporting that UK firm Metronomy are offering 200,000 IBM PCs free of charge to UK households. Of course, there is a catch - advertising. Accepting the terms and conditions will get users a free IBM PC running Windows XP, but they will also be required to watch three minutes of TV style advertising for every hour of computer use and undertake to use the PC for a minimum of 30 hours per month."

5 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. doomed to fail? by gooru · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Didn't a failed experiment like this happen in the U.S. already? This reminds me of all the free ISPs that used to exist for a brief time that are now all defunct or for pay.

    1. Re:doomed to fail? by Znork · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "It's nice that you don't but don't condemn other people for liking free money."

      I dont. However, the advertising has to be paid for or the company making the offer will go bust. Would you spend your advertising budget trying to sell your products to people who cant spend $200 on a PC, or would you spend your advertising budget on some demographic that may have more disposable money that they can spend on buying your products?

      It's a good deal. For the recepients of the computers. But they're not the ones who will be paying for the PC's. So, how are they going to sell it to those who will be paying for it?

      It's not about wether or not I'd take your $200, it's about wether or not you're going to give it away. Are you?

    2. Re:doomed to fail? by Haeleth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Didn't a failed experiment like this happen in the U.S. already? This reminds me of all the free ISPs that used to exist for a brief time that are now all defunct or for pay.

      What, like ConnectFree and UK2? Maybe all the free ISPs in the USA died or started charging, I have no idea, but here in the UK they're alive and well.

      In other words, what happened in America is no guide to what will happen here.

  2. Ha! Deja vu by JoeShmoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    (looks over at the Compaq 5301 in the corner)

    Where have we heard this before? Oh yes, Free-PC.

    In 1999 or there abouts Free-PC was doing the "ad-supported computer" scheme. Of course, back then streaming video for ads was out of the question and so they just chopped a 1024x768 desktop to be an 800x600 desktop with standard animated GIF type ads around the surplus.

    I was lucky enough to get one. Free-PC had no chance. I think they were toast even before the dot-com bubble burst. In the end, the were bought by eMachines who had no interest in supporting the crazy scheme so they sent us all letters giving us ownership of the computers.

    Truth be told, I thought it was a decent machine for an (ugh) Presario. Has some kind of AMD, I think it was a K2-66 maybe. I kept lugging around because I intended to find an upgrade for it, but the fastest processor it supports (a KIII+) goes on eBay for ridiculously absurd prices.

    But anyway, back on topic, I think companies are nuts to keep trying this. It took all of five minutes for people to figure out how to hack the Free-PC to be a normal PC (not to mention, play any game that used DirectX and ads go bye bye). I highly recommend people sign up for this. I'd bet dollars to pesos they go under in a year and everyone walks away with a free computer. History repeats itself right?

    - JoeShmoe
    .

    --
    -- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
  3. Re:did you read your post? by Deusy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, if you understand what you wrote, are you suggesting that they'll ship a GNU/Linux version of their ad software?

    Yes, I read my post you dingbat.

    No, they won't be shipping a GNU/Linux versoin of their ad software. Yes, I can still 'load' it onto my PC to adhere to their TOCs. Just copy it over to my HD.

    Or I could keep WinXP on a partition and boot that once a month although that's less preferrable than the first option.

    Or I could hit the middleground by using WINE.

    Also, the terms and conditions say that you must connect to the internet at least once per month. Obviously this is so that some piece of software can transmit data to verify that you've installed your ads etc. Will this software be available for GNU/Linux?

    Who cares? Their TOCs don't stipulate, "You must be on the Internet so our software can register each month." Nor does it say, "You must use the preinstalled operating system." It simply says, "You must be connected to the Internet once a month." I can do that. So what if their software doesn't fire? It's no concern of mine.

    --

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