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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.
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:
This sounds like a good deal for grannys and the like.
Subscribers got to read this ad early.. I feel like my day is now complete.
No offense or anything, but why is this on the front page?
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
As I recall we all got the system, cancelled the contract and hacked the P.C. Sounds like this time we do the same thing, but we don't have to hack it.
Any ideas on how to make their contract unenforcable? I'm thinking pseudonym + PO Box personally.
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.
Great! So once I've factored in the cost of the crappy AOL service that I have no interest in using, the thing will have cost me 600 bucks...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Why don't they send them in the mail for free like the CDs. Seems like a marketing strategy change to me.
$299 for a PC, heavily subsidised by an AOL subscription.
This is like a cellphone plan being applied to home PCs.
I wonder how much of that $299 is for the Windows license? This is linux's opportunity in my mind...if PCs become throw-away items (e.g. equal to or less value than a console system) at what point do the corporate masters figure 30-40% of your capital costs going to Microsoft doesn't make much sense?
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
They can call it a Home CompAOLter (I meanth it!)
I know that their connection software is bloatware- but isn't this a bit on the ridiculous side? Then again- it's been a while since I priced hard drives- perhaps the 10GB models are no longer available?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Wow~! 1st post!!!
:P
AOL is evil as ever. Who needs their expensive per xkbps download stream compared to high speed dsl or cable!!??
Not to mention that it's very very very hard to cancel AOL account.
Cancel it and call them next day, and call next day to check on them...99% of time your account is still well and alive!
What does one need to squash AOL account to death effectively? If you had any bad experiences in cancelling AOL account, please post here!!!
oktokie
$299 gives you an entry level PC. Looks like its enough to surf the web with and do most day to day stuff. Surprised by the lack of DVD drive, but maybe they figure that most people are interested in download and burn? Certainly not something for Doom 3, but then again I'm not surprised. You also need to be subscribed to AOL for one year. This really sounds like a similar approach as that used for mobile phones.
Reading the FAQ, I see mention of 'AOL Office Writer', 'AOL Office Calc' and 'AOL Office Impres'. Searching the net reveals nothing on the programs, though the closest I could find were matching names in the Open Office suite. Other than the names I wonder if they are one and the same?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
For the love of Christ, that's all we need is more ignorant AOL users on slow dialup connections. Frankly, I'm quite surprised that AOL hasn't gone the way of many other services (Prodigy, MSN, etc.) that abandoned their proprietary software for simple internet access.
Maybe if they encouraged use of standard Internet, the IQ of the average netizen wouldn't decrease every time AOL signed up a new user. It's a real problem when users call tech support because they can't get to a website because they type the domain in the AOL search bar instead of an internet browser. *sigh*
some info. 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 With them including the monitor, printer, and xp, this is a fairly good deal. Yes you end up having to pay the 25 a month for aol, but most people would be spending this anyways on some type of internet conection or another.
TruePunk | Games
From the department of redundancy department.
"If a quarter is two bits, then a dollar's a byte." -R Deric Miller
How did they get ahold of 50GB disks? That's not a standard size. Perhaps it's a 60GB disk with 10GB of pre-installed AOL crap?
Here it is, the exact antithesis of the Linux vs. Windows story about a half hour ago, and the reason that "Linux vs. Windows" is not a reality yet. Plug it in, turn it on, and you're on (a poor imitation of) the Internet.
From the article: "The AOL Optimized PC also comes bundled with the AOL Office suite, a version supplied by Sun. This suite of productivity applications consists of: AOL Office Writer, AOL Office Calc and AOL Office Impress." This is a nice step for Open Office in terms of exposure to Windows users.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him to eat and he will fish forever.
And other outlets. You bought a rock-bottom priced PC and you were obliged to use MSN for 3 years.
After calculating the high cost of MSN service versus using a local ISP, you could have spent the difference in the contract price and bought yourself a really nice PC.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Does it come pre-loaded with spam? Because if not, no sale, bucko.
A cute, if not grossly underpowered little computer.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
how long till we start seeing these emblazened with the AOL running man in our mailboxes?
"Honey! The new AOL computer is here!"
"Oh good, now we can finish this beowulf cluster..."
In Soviet Redmond, software programs you!
AOL Optimized ? With a "Me too" key ?
Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80004005'
/i_utils.asp, line 29
Unspecified error
You call this geekzone?
Test your net with Netalyzr
I don't know how expensive AOL in the US is, but if the prices in Europe are anything to go by than this offer is actually quite expensive.
Link to pictures of machine, along with many details about what you get. http://www.aolcheckout.com/applications/searchtool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1032073
TruePunk | Games
As Confucious Say:
If you pay for month of AOL, you give yourself net access for month.
If you buy neighbor cheap wireless linksys router and offer free setup, putting your MAC on it and retaining usr/pwd, you give yourself net access for life.
Free software. Almost "free" hardware (throw-ins to a deal). Free wireless access. How long before we see ubiqituous computing? I guess the bigger question is how long before we see a PC included in a cereal box instead of those DVDs I've seen advertised on the boxes of Fruit Loops (or whatever it was)? "Hey! Check it out! This box contains a coupon for a free PC! (just send in 20 box tops, plus $39.95 shipping and handling)"
Buy now, pay later.
If its not coming out of your pocket today, its cheaper.
People don't think long-term when making purchases. That's why banks can sell consumer credit at high interest rates with low repayments over rediculously long times.
People joke about "Wogs and Cash", but the concept of never going into debt for a non-incoming generating purchase has a lot going for it.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Are you sure it's a good idea to be exposing mainstream users to software that's still in its infancy? Once they have the idea that Open Office isn't any good, they'll probably stay with the idea - even after it's improved to Office 97 quality.
Let's not forget that one can hate his government, but love his country.
"The computers will come configured with a simple desktop with large icons that send users to specific areas of the AOL service or applications loaded on the computer. They can also be preconfigured for Spanish language speakers."
Say it. You know you want to. You know it's coming. The best case mods. Ever.
Regarding the 256MB of RAM...
I still can't figure out why today's PCs are still shipping with 256MB as the standard. Windows XP behaves much worse with 256MB versus something like 512MB.
It's like when I purchased my car a few years ago. With like 1000 miles on it, it handled horribly in snow and bad weather. I thought the car was designed poorly, until I realized it was the tires. I had a very important part of the package slowing everything down.
My point: Who cares if it's a 2gHz CPU? With 256MB you'll be paging to that 5400RPM drive too much to notice the benefit.
The specs are similar or even higher in some cases, and they don't ship with the crippled Celeron processors. I'll take an AMD processor over the yucky Intel Celeron processor any time.
Sorry, but this story reads more like an advertisement than a story.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
That annoying phrase is not proper english. One can not "have got" something.. I word "got" does not belong in that statement.
I thought WalMart was the official outlet of cut-rate PC's. Office Depot may work around cities, but it sure isn't going to get the rural areas, for that matter not many people visit Office Depots, unless it's office/business related.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
AOL Optimized? Oh shit - the peg just broke off on my cognitive dissonance meter.
Since they plan to offer this in retail stores, where you can realistically pay cash, any idea how they plan to enforce the subscription terms? Or will this turn into another NetPC(? The similar deal MSN tried a few years ago) fiasco, where they end up losing huge amounts of money because no one actually follows through with the subscription?
Though, it really doesn't look like they stand to lose all that much. For the machine they offer, I expect $300 comes pretty close to their actual costs. For less than the total contract (just under $600), you could get a better-equipped eMachine, or even a Dell or HP.
(And yes, I RTFA, all three of them).
Anyone notice at the website it says it comes with "AOL Office powered by Sun"? Is that a special version of StarOffice? It would be cool if it was. I don't want to speculate though.
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.
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
choke out the cheap Linspire/Lindows boxes now? Damn, another year with no Linux on the desktop!
The fallout from this offer may very well be the annoyance of techies everywhere. If the target audience are the people who have yet to buy a home computer then a lot of those people will be pretty much clueless with it. So it will follow in a lot of cases, these people will download or otherwise get viruses galore and/or adware. Since these new people only spent what was it 299 on a new computer, they aren't going to want to pay some tech 60 bucks an hour to fix their computer. Their tech friends will be used and abused. We will be called in to fix their problems. If the problem is software and we fix it for free than all is right with the world. The fallback on fixing a computer once is that forever more that person can say that, I think what you did 6 years ago is screwing up my computer now. Also, there is a hardware issue. These computers have the cheapest possible hardware, parts are going to die in them a lot. Well, back to the poor techie that got stuck fixing there computer. If you find out that lets say their harddrive is pooched, then they will ask how much it will cost. You will tell them and they will give you the look, like I told them that they have to hand over a years salary to fix it, then they will say well, could it be this or is there a way I can get by not using this right now...I can go on
So my assertion is cheap PCs are only a headache for techies. Any techie who finds out that someone has one of these type of computers, run run away, very fast even
Nuttles
Christian and proud of it
this is hardly a news story
Infancy!?! StarOffice was available about 6 years ago! And, I'd hardly put Office 97 above it today.
http; http# http] http[ http'
all result in http://www.microsft.com
This does not happen with Mozilla
Looks to me like somebody somewhere is having a quiet laugh.
Buy this crappy threesome (provider + OS + computer) for nowhere near $600
And as a special bonus we will provide you with an endless supply of spam, virusses and spyware.
Believe it or not, this offer will surely keep you off those dangerous streets for the next few years! Wouldn't it be nice if you neighbor went out to purchase one? Oh yes....
It is, though I have to admit that I shiver and my heart begins to race like mad when I read AOL Office Writer, AOL Office Calc and AOL Office Impress.
Lord have mercy on us the end is nigh!
This looks like a way to unload a glut of small CRT displays. CRT displays smaller than 17" now have negative value. Try to sell one.
who gives a shit?
Alcohol & calculus don't mix. Never drink & derive.
This helps me recall an NAACP outburst last year, about Coca-Cola marketing "not-as-fresh" wares (though apparently still as safe as the usual) at a reduced (80-90% of original) price to low-income neighborhoods.
It is `wrong' on many levels, but in order to accept that, you have to deal with the "They don't have to drink it anyway" argument among others.
Open Office isn't any good? My mom, who I have to go up to tell her how to read a CD-ROM with pictures on it repeatedly, finds Open Office better than Office 2k. For the typical home user, Open Office can be better and easier than Office.
The manufacturers probably aren't making too many 10GB drives these days. So, you get a bulk lot of what's cheapest which is probably somewhere in the 30 to 60 gig range these days for a cheap IDE 3.5" hard drive.
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.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I wonder if the keyboard will default to Caps Lock turned on
Storm
Great, now Office Depot are about to be introduced to their own September That Never Ended....
I don't think we'll really see a statistically significant change online... I mean the clue ratio will go from 13.2 to 12.9%. Who cares?
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.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Back a few years ago, didn't they find that 12 month commitment not enforceable in California?
Fight Spammers!
Sure, AOL sucks. But the target range here isn't the Linux geek with the 3MB/Sec connection. Like it was stated in the article, the target consists of A) retirees, but B) mostly minority and minimum-wage groups. In this case, they'll be happy just to have a connection - since they'll be paying for it anyway (if it didn't ship with AOL for a year, they'd still have to get a connection somehow), this really is a good deal for them.
christ, i forsee flames, chrome and pictures of the virgin mary everywhere. aye dios mio!
So it's already got AOL ISP & AOL Office.
Why not cut a few more bucks and run a custom Linux AOL OS.
This computer is too slow to run any high end games. So the only thing it would really be used for is Office and the Internet.
AOL could then supply updates and software through it's online service.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
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.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Sounds like a nice little computer. However, if I made this purchase, I would take it home, re-format the HD, install my favorite Linux distro and find a way to cancel that shitty AOL contract - or give them some false info in the first place. Then, it would be a very nice little computer =)
AOL??? You have got to be kidding me. Only idiots use AOL?
Not only could they have made a bigger amount of profit on each one (lets be honest, they wouldn't have passed the cost reduction onto the customer) but they could probably lock it down better too and supply a whole bunch of applications such as OpenOffice to encourage users not to think about reformatting their HD.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Why is it "AOL Optimized?" Does it have a drool-proof keyboard with special keys including [LOL], [A/S/L], [OMG WTF] and [ME TOO!!!1!]?
How much does it cost to disguise advertisements as geek reports on slashdot? I'm sure lots of other companies would love to take advantage of something like this "report."
$299.99 + $286.80 = $586.79 -- makes you realize just how much money AOL is making on users who pay $23.90 per month and did not get the $299 computer deal...
Years ago when I did technical support, AOL was absolute garbage.
Besides cleaning up their act and lessening their propriataryness, they have also added halfway decent tools for newbies.
Now I would never recommend AOL to an experianced netizien, but They have cleaned up their act and made a product that I would recommend them to a newby.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
You'll notice that the configuration does not include any firewall or any anti-virus .... and the targeted customer will be the most vulnerable.
Be prepared for an AOL army of spamming zombies
why doesn't it run Linux? Granted, AOL, if you're going to use a PC as a loss leader, you might as well use Linux - at least you won't be paying the Redmond tax.
I take it that this PC is intended for newbies, which is why Linux makes a perfect choice:
Okay, there is one caveat: games and off the shelf software. A good Wine setup could handle the latter; the former, well, maybe not so much. But then, what would you expect for $259?*
* - price of computer sans Windows XP license....
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
I don't think it helps much when they slap AOL in front of everything though.
And the fact that you can get a better deal for dialup from any other ISP makes you wonder just why they'd do something like this... You can very likely newegg yourself a better PC for the same cost using a lower priced ISP
Means they also want a bad rep for PC services!
Take what I say with a grain of salt, for I have had bad experiences with a celeron before, but I don't think I'm far off the mark here.
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
Just a little while ago, Office Depot announced a PC recycling program. See this link. It would have been a great promo if they could have worked in some kind of discount with the new PCs, or even flexibility with the service provider, when you brought in your old PC.
In the same breath, one can't help but wonder if any of the components in these "new" PCs are from the recycling program, esp. considering the specs of some of the components, namely the optical drives ;-)
I think it's amusing that this system is really bad, and yet their promo makes it sound like it's the best computer there ever was.
I built my computer 2 years ago and it's much better than this thing.
...use so much exclamated speech selling an obviously lowpar computer:
[...] runs on a blazing fast Intel Celeron 2.0GHz CPU that carries with it 256MB of lightning-quick DDR main memory - upgradeable to a mind-boggling 2GB - a 40GB Ultra ATA 100 hard drive and so many extras that we could fill volumes of literature describing them [...]. (emphasis added).
I guess someone forgot to take their prescription pills.
Aren't the Wal-Mart PC's the same price without the dial-up commitment?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Nuttles, your sig, "Christian and proud of it" strikes a weird chord with me. On the one hand, I applaud your desire to announce your faith to the world, and I appreciate the sentiment. But on the other hand, I also know that "proud" and "Christian" don't really belong in the same sentence unless they're used in contrast, as in: Christians should be humble, not proud. In my opinion, choosing a different word could improve the strength of your message (for both believers and non-believers).
What does NAACP protests have to do with companies targeting low income minorities? Oh, you think all blacks are low income. Now I understand why the NAACP is protesting your state. Idiot.
Also, on the bottom left the 'ANY KEY' key,
and 'EJECT CUP HOLDER' key.
With Sun in the shape it's in, floundering about looking for a market and losing money in the process, I'm suprised it doesn't read "AOL Optimized Sun Workstation $299". Hehe.
I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!
If only they had a typo on their website that forgot to mention the 1 year AOL commitment, we'd have another IOpener & Websurfer incident on our hands.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=7 38&e=1&u=/nm/20040812/tc_nm/media_aol_dc
I must say, even though a majority of it is still crap and bloat, AOL's service HAS improved since Steve Case stepped down as CEO. Any time I have to use it at a friend's house I always get on in the first try, and it's usually a 52000bps conneciton. Not to mention you can now get AOL email over standard IMAP, and there's rumors that standard Dialup Networking connecting is on the way.
...and that's all there is to it.
I'm a big fan of Microsoft (no kidding) and use Windows XP for almost everything (and FreeBSD for some specialized high-end servers). BUT I wonder why AOL--the company that OWNS Netscape--doesn't even try to compete agains Microsoft when it can?
I would have loved to see these PCs running FreeBSD (since they control the hardware, they can pick just the right video card and network card), with Mozilla/Netscape, and OpenOffice. Seems that they only got 1 out of 3 right!
And if users wanted Windows, they can sell them a disk. But for most of their target that just wants to browse the web and do email, it would be possible.
I suspect the main barrier is doing a FreeBSD version of their client software. It must be hard for AOL/TW to hire progammers and they can't/won't let their Indian sweatshops do a new version.
Best Buy can have you arrested
And HP is so much better... how? Sure, you might be one of the few decent tech support guys there; but this is HP we're talking about. Their tech support is pretty lousy if you ask me (long holds, typical "reboot" solution, etc.)
the concept of never going into debt for a non-incoming generating purchase has a lot going for i
Yeah, that's how I justify my Dual Opteron, 4GB RAM, 10TB SCSI Array, triple 21inch LCD gig too: email is essential.
Isn't this just screaming for a $225 via eden or equivalent based small box system?
I am still waiting on the mass marketed, $200, micro footprint system + $50 for a monitor.
It's been done. Not only that it's been patented.
US Patent 6,629,793 The Emoticon Keyboard
I haven't seen anyone ask the obvious question here: Why isn't anyone doing this with a Linux machine/setup? I'm sure Redhat or someone could do a similar thing. Noone here is courageous enough to set up this kind of deal?
This really isn't anything new. Check out this article from a year or two ago about a $200 AOL optimized computer. Better yet, here's an article by The Register referring to a similar Compuserve move and AOL's planned response, dated 1999!
Plus, I'm sure everyone saw these computers advertised at some point. I know the $200 emachines ads caught my eye a couple years ago. It seems the original submission is about 5 years behind in the news.
Flamebait = anything you don't agree with that has 1 or more replies.
If you want a crappy computer, why would you force yourself to use aol for a year? They are not giving any sort of extra discount on this computer.
Look at this. This computer here is $15 dollars cheaper, and has the following specs:
- Celeron 2.0 G
- 128 MB mem (which is less, but an extra 128 is what, 30 bucks?)
- 40 G harddrive (western digital)
- Then some crappy on board hardware.
Of course, this does not have a monitor, but those are also very cheap at this size (and I actually have a hard time not collecting free ones at this size somehow.)
Point, click, Administrator?
How can they take advantage of LSASS on Mac OSX?
Unless I am mistaken LSASS is unique to Win2k, XP, and 2003.
Computers will be free. You will pay for the software.
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
Insert Generic Sig Here:
$29.99: Lite-On Black 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive, Model LTR-52327S, OEM
$64.50: SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -BULK -OEM
$56.00: Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
$59.00: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 266 FSB, 256K Cache Processor - Retail:
$44.00 POWMAX BIO Black/Silver Mid tower Case, Model "CP510-2" -RETAIL
$53.00 SAMSUNG 40GB 7200RPM Light and Slim IDE Hard Drive, Model SP0411N, OEM Drive only
$134.00: ViewSonic E70FB 17" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor -RETAIL
$42.95: Lexmark Z615 Color Inkjet Printer, 14 PPM, 4800 x 1200 DPI, Color/B& W
$11.50: CNet Internal 56K V.92 PCI Fax/Data/TAM Modem, Model CN5614RV - Retail
Total: $568.94
Now, get dialup internet service from your local ip for $10 a month for 12 months:
$120
Total comes out to 688.94.
$102.15 more than the aol package, but you get a much more reliable package than that 2.0 ghz stick of celery.
Also if you're not going to build this pc yourself (likely if you are considering buying an AOL computer), you can hire your neighborhood geek or try one of the professional outfits. I have no idea how much it costs, because I always assemble mine and my family's computers. I'd say it can't be more than another $100...
So if you are a technological newbie, I'd say go with the AOL pc if you're looking for one. Otherwise, buy your parts and start building ;)
quote
People joke about "Wogs and Cash", but the concept of never going into debt for a non-incoming generating purchase has a lot going for it.
end quote
Can't say I have heard this one before, and I'm guessing it's english from the use of wog... I suppose the reasoning being wogs can't get / won't have bank accounts?
However the sentiment is a valid one, I don't have much compared to many in the western world, but what I do have I own 100%, and I do not have any credit anywhere, by choice, so many people who "appear" to have far more than me (new car etc) actually have far less, as they own little outright and owe fortunes that would have me considering having some kids so I could sell them into slavery and pay off the debts.
I have to admit to being saddened when the net and computing has been reduced to a free gift to sweeten some long term "service" contract.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
What I do want to understand is: why there isn't a single non-rich OR non-white OR non-christian running for prez in the US of A? why both Dem and Rep always indicate them? Why don't you for the love of $DEITY start voting ONLY in non-Democrats-non-Republicans for every single instance?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
What it has a credit card reader built into it?
Just a joke I simply refuse to read anything with "AOL" in it.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
0 = Y 1
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
A non-income generating purchase like a car? I gotta have one of those.
I selected Plain Old Text and it still interpreted the less than sign as a tag member.
Piece of shit.
0 <= Y < 1
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Introducing the Systemax AOL Special!
AOL and Systemax combine forces to bring you one of the greatest deals ever on a loaded powerhouse desktop PC and monitor, featuring bumper-to-bumper world-class components, along with a top-quality Lexmark Ink Jet Printer! The spectacular Systemax AOL PC runs on a blazing fast Intel Celeron 2.0GHz CPU that carries with it 256MB of lightning-quick DDR main memory - upgradeable to a mind-boggling 2GB - a 40GB Ultra ATA 100 hard drive and so many extras that we could fill volumes of literature describing them. Here are just a few - 52X CD-ROM drive, SIS Integrated Graphics, Cyber Acoustics CA-2016 2-piece speaker system, Realtek AC '97 6-channel audio, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 56K Max v.92 Send/Receive Fax Hard Modem, 10/100Mbps LAN Support, 104-key Keyboard, Scroll Mouse and mouse pad. Of course, the AOL Systemax PC runs on the award-winning Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system for incomparable performance and stability. And this fantastic computer is housed in a sleek, stylish fully equipped black Micro ATX tower case with 250-Watt power supply.
17" Non-Interlaced Black SVGA Monitor .27 dot pitch and unlimited display colors, this outstanding monitor delivers brilliant colors, sharp contrasts and exceptional text recognition. Its handsomely appointed, durable construction is the ideal complement to your brand new computer!
We've added the perfect monitor to accompany the incredible Systemax AOL PC - this 17-inch non-interlaced black SVGA. Boasting 1280 x 1024 maximum resolution,
Lexmark Black Ink Jet Printer
This amazing deal just gets better and better. The computer and monitor alone are worth hundreds more than what we're asking for the entire package. Add in this legendary Lexmark black ink Jet Printer and you have a value that you just cannot afford to pass up. This fast, high-performance printer offers 35mm photo quality resolution, 4800 x 1200 DPI printing, and speeds of up to 12 pages per minute (PPM) black and 7 PPM color! Durable, reliable and economical - the Lexmark Ink Jet puts the exclamation point on this super Systemax AOL PC special!
The Best Technical Support in the Industry!
Best of all, this Systemax AOL PC comes with best-in-the-business technical support and warranty. Our rock-solid one-year limited warranty includes 24/7 toll-free technical support that averages less than a minute of hold time - one of the best in the industry. Our technicians resolve over 80% of our customer's problems within 10 minutes of the first call. The exclusive easy-to-use Tech-In-A-Box software, included in every PC, provides a fail-safe recovery and restore solution in the event of system failure. This drastically reduces the PC user's potential down time, and greatly minimizes the possibility of catastrophic system failure. With a Systemax PC, you'll get years and years of experience, amazing service, excellent craftsmanship and a PC that is built to the highest industry standards in our ISO 9001 certified facility.
Half the posts are saying "Who cares? It's an entry-level $299 computer." Someone please tell me why a normal computer user (the type who uses AOL) needs anything faster than a 2GHz Celeron with 256MB of RAM?
Word Processing? check.
Web surfing? check.
Email? check.
Office applications? check.
Solitaire? check.
All of the above simultaneously? check.
Doom 3? Oops!
Other than video games, a typical "entry-level" PC like this does fine. This is the same thing as Microsoft having trouble getting people off of Windows '9x.
The Mah & Pah with a 500Mhz PII doesn't need anything faster. Their broadband is still slower than the speed that their PC can render a web page. It still plays chess better than they do. And they don't notice the few seconds of paging when the switch apps.
I've always said that your case ain't nothin' unless it's got hydraulics.
The most important expression in the history of mankind, "WTF," is conspicuously absent...
can anyone say "business opportunity?"
I'll make millions, I tells ya, millions!
Very interesting info. I am sure many would be interested in reading more.
with Viruses, Trojans, Spyware, and Porn? A true AOL optimized PC needs all of those, based on the ones I've helped friends and neighbors with.
"Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss
If you use your car to generate incoming (ie, you need one for work or you can't get to work without one), its an income generating purchase.
If you could live without a car, for example, by using public transport (which may very well be out of the question in large areas of the US), then its not a "gotta", its a "wanna".
Also, the car you "wanna" have is probably a lot nicer than the car you "gotta" have.
Consider the following:
Fork out 1000 bucks from your pocket and buy a set of wheels. Obviously nothing fancy, but it serves the "gotta". In the mean time, stick what you would be paying in repayments in the bank. After 12-18 months, upgrade your bomb to something a bit nicer.
Set up an excel spreadsheet, think about the car you want, and work out how much you'd have to spend to get there. Save what you would otherwize be paying on the loan, and see how long it would take you to get there. Depending or your tastes, you could probably do it in 3 to 5 intermediate cars. (Think 3 year old used cars for the intermediates... their depreciation rates are lower, and you'll only be holding them for a year or so).
Suprising, isn't it?
In my calcs, after 5 years, I am actually better off. I OWN the car, no repayments. I can then lower the money I'm putting in the bank, and roll the car over every three years for a new model.
Note, this doesn't work if you drive thousands of miles a week for work.. but if you are doing that, its a "gotta", you are probably receiving a car allowance from your employer, and you can write off most car expenses against your tax anyway.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
... I shudder to think at how my former coworkers in Tech Support are going to handle this, or if it'll all be outsourced somewhere else.
Systemax was capable of building some nice machines--- but I got tired of dealing with people who don't deserve a computer calling tech support and complaining that "It's not working... think the beer I spilled in the monitor was a bad thing?"
As whitebox OEM manufacturers, they weren't too bad compared to some others in the industry.... but their HR department-- pure evil incarnate.
I got an ABIT N7-S (?), Athlon 2600+, 1GB RAM, dual 8GB HD, 128MB ATI card (Dunno which one, but its got a TV out which was all I was really interested in), funky black case and 17" Viewsonic flat screen monitor.
I paid cash, even though in my (our?) line of work, its an income generating purchase.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Honestly. I have broadband at home, but my primary computer is a laptop right now. I've been looking into getting a new machine to customize for gaming, and this might just be the best plan for me. Why, you may ask?
AOL.
I used it for my ISP for a month while I was unemployed (about the only time I was ever thankful for a free disc in the mail) and found it to be usable, if not the most pleasant experience.
I travel quite a bit between a couple relatives' houses which don't have persistent net connections. If the contract does not require me to use AOL as the ISP on the cheap machine, or if it will accept "AOL for Broadband" (which I will never use), I'll gladly sign up once I get some extra cash, then begin loading good components in there. The dial-up will be a good backup for the laptop.
Of course, that's just me, and I'm crazy. Sure, there are better alternatives, but in my situation, this looks pretty tempting.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
There are machines out there like iDot who sell lower end PCs - Athlon, 128Mb, no hard drive no monitor for about $160-$199. You could easily configure an AMD 2100, 512MB RAM, 40GB drive, sound, video, kb, mouse, Linspire, with shipping for about $385.
You could but a sub300 machine for about $225 + 50 bucks more for a drive and be out the door with a non bleeding edge machine for under 300 bucks.
And they don't require a monthly pimp fee to AOL.
Practically no modern game will play on this "machine". You get a web browser, mp3 player and a text editor with printer, that's pretty much it. Garbage from my point of view.
a te gory=51109&item=5115338678&rd=1
If you need something as close to ground as this, consider Ebay. Recently I purchased a very decent a nice-looking HP's IPAQ PC for $35:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&c
like this one.
The config like the one this AOL ad has will cost you around $100-$150 on Ebay.
Andrew
Looks like the anti-trust settlement made this computer possible.
sahuaro
Phoenix Linux Users Group
Penguins in the desert
find the name "AOL Optimized" kind of deceptive? Seriously, what computer needs to be optimized for AOL? And looking at the specs, how is this computer optimized to do ANYTHING? (well, perhaps the price is optimized)
So, the PC is $299, the service is $23.90. Looks like AOL is picking up the rest of the actual cost of the machine by charging a high price for dial-up. Pretty soon, they are going to want to recoup the cost by raising the dial-up rates by $1.00 - $1.50. That is a lot of money considering how many AOL idiots there are out there...
Your sig just happened to me. I think anytime you put ; instead of : you go to microsoft.
Everything in moderation, even moderation.
No, especially moderation.
Whoever handles the support issues for these trashy units is just gonna love it!
This is no real surprise a fledgling isp that is going down the perverbial toilet and what do they think of. No not cheaper and more efficient servers, but a cheap not even worthy of a 3-world country computer. This isn't gonna attract the users they want. It'll attract the idiot people who see the name AOL besides it.
Celeron 2.4, 128mb ram, 40gb HD, no OS. Get it from their small business site. It has an i875 motherboard, onboard gigabit ethernet, 24x CD. For an addional 100$ you can upgrade to a P4 2.8 HT cpu.
For the love of Christ, that's all we need is more ignorant AOL users on slow dialup connections.
I'll agree that ignoranmce can caus eproblems, but why do *you* care if they are on slow connections? Unless you just want to email huge attachments to everyone you know, or hijack their comupters. The majority of people I know (and I'm a big dog geek in a town full of geeks, but I know lots of folks all over) are still on dialup.
Frankly, I'm quite surprised that AOL hasn't gone the way of many other services (Prodigy, MSN, etc.) that abandoned their proprietary software for simple internet access.
Since they're hugely successful, that would be stupid. They would need a compelling case to change over. And a lot of people are *happy* with AOL. AOL works just fine for the teeming masses. Do I wish it were better than it is? Of course. But their users are happy, and keep sending them money. So why should they change?
DellSB - Dimension 2400 with P4 2.8GHz,128MB RAM, 80GB HD, and 48x CD-RW for Only $320 after Rebate with free Shipping.
It also comes with a 10/100 NIC, 56K modem, stereo speakers, Windows XP Home, and a 2 year in-home warranty (worth $113)
Note that you can upgrade to Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 48x CD-RW Drive [add $19]
Then just go to newegg or wherever and buy a cheap 512mb stick of ram and you're all set. Under $450 and way way way more power.
People start to sell them in about a year, year and half. They might make nice, cheap Linux boxes. If a dim-wit you know buys one, and one would expect AOL to push a newer model every 1 to 3 years, you might be able to pick one up a used one really cheap (maybe $100 - $150 w/out monitor).
"Fortunately, I'm adhering to a very strict drug regimen to keep my mind limber..."
Part of the problem with ebaying monitors is that they are notoriously expensive to ship, and thus aren't worth shipping unless they are worth a decent amount of money, (being they are used and only 15in, they aren't going to be worth much). You might be able to get $10-20/each at a local place, especially if you have a lot of them to sell in bulk since you don't have to worry bout shipping.
----- Question authority, but not ours. Hate the man, but we're not him.
wtf is a 50gb harddrive?!
Does she have local dialup numbers in nearly all parts of the US?
Those of us who travel would like to make local calls from hotel rooms, instead of paying long-distance charges to connect to the internet. At least until broadband internet in hotel rooms becomes common/cheaper ($10/day is not acceptable).
That's the main advantage of AOL, Earthlink, and other national ISPs.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
So it's going to be rusted out and propped up on Micro Machine wheels with chrome hubcaps?
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
...so will they be putting Win XP Starter Edition on it?
Don't you mean Star Office?
I'm surprized so few people have noted the inclusion of OpenOffice. That seems like the largest-scale rollout of OpenOffice to date, and it has to have a chance to giving OpenOffice some fairly decent market share before too long. After all, Office's huge market share mostly came to be just by being included on every computer sold anywhere!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I was recruited somewhat recently to work on this project on the US-side maintenance of the platform.
Most of the work on this was done in Israel. I was a little bit surprised it wasn't India, but WTFDIK.
I was told that the longer term plan is to do away with Microsoft on these machines and have an all-custom AOL blend of OS and applications.
for a better processor: 2.0 GHZ P4 or AMD (you save a bunch on AMD and can even get a better spec AMD for the same price as a 2.0 GHZ P4)
The only concern is the increased price on the motherboard, but that shouldn't be a big problem!
CD writer/DVD ROM: Everyone should have this by now. Even my sorry ass 400 Mhz celeron Emachine comes with a DVD rom.
The LA Times carried a story with more emphasis on the ethnic/cultural angle, saying AOL is specifically targetting Latino users/families who do not already have a computer in the home in order to build their subscriber base.
1 ,3576783.story?coll=la-home-business
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-aol12aug12,
other low-income realms. This includes a new service they are considering to reach the "urban" market, complete with "spinnaz" instead of an hourglass, and a sideways glock instead of a mouse pointer. All kidding aside, they are also aiming toward older computer purchasers in addition to the urban market. The desktops will have big friendly AOL icons on the desktop to make things easier.
i use linux and windows oh god how can i have an opinion
First of all, it has a celeron. This cpu constantly lags. I know, I have one in my laptop. 2nd, who the hell has a 5400rpm hard drive? Im suprised this can even do word processing! At least it has a monitor with it. But hell, I could build a pc twice as fast as this for probably half the money.
I already tell people who ask for computer help that I don't do Windows, or Mac; call Microsoft or Apple for help, that's what you're paying them for. Now if it's Linux, I'll be more than happy to help in exchange for a home cooked meal or beer.
Nathan's blog
How can it be AOL optimized if it is only a celeron? it is going to choke under the first p2p app you throw at it, and the rampant amount of spyware that gets dl'd by most AOL users. Last but not least how do you expect it to be able to handle the next release of AOL? (which is just as bloated if not more so than windows itself.)
...it came with Mozilla/Netscape pre-installed...
I might just have read up till the end of page one on this- but I think that $299 for a monitor and PC of that spec is quite a lot to say the least. Buying from shops, both online, and locally, I could build a PC of moderately good spec (512 megs ram/Athlon 2.7/40 gig HDD) without a monitor for under £100. Monitors- I can get a 19" one for £50.... While I know the exchange rate is quirky at the moment, the actual relative *value* of the currencies in each country appear to be the same- you don't pay $4 for a cup of coffee over there! Oh, and I was with AOHELL for a while. Then I got banned for excessive useage. It was like being banned from prison. With the system requirements thing, that machine would have trouble running AOL 9- almost- it needs a 1 ghz p3 and 256 megs of ram......*cough* good coding *cough*....
My UID is prime. Is yours?
Doing at least basic image processing on photos taken with their digital camera? You'd be surprised how many moms and pops at least try their hand at photoshop nowadays.
Some form of media encoding? You don't have to be a genius to run a file through DivX, you know. Or to rip your collection of music CDs to MP3s, so you can put them on an iPod.
Antivirus scan kicking in? You haven't really learned what "slow" is, until you've witnessed Norton's or McAffee's scan kicking in. In fact, much of the popularity of, say, Intel's HyperThreading isn't because people have heavily-multithreaded apps, but because you can still reasonably use that computer while virus scans and such kick in.
(Not that their real time scanning is any better. Watch the same directory full of small files take under a minute to copy to a file server, without Norton Antivirus. Watch it take more than half a fscking hour with Norton Antivirus on.)
And so on and so forth.
And even games aren't that unheard of among the less computer-savvy people. Just because someone isn't a die-hard smack-talking rocket-jumping Doom 3 player, doesn't mean that everything they'll ever play is Solitaire.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
you want to buy components in bulk to sell to make a cheap PC? you can't easily buy sub 2GHz processors any more, and if you can, they're no cheaper than the more common faster ones - supply and demand. windows xp on 128mb's unpleasant - 256MB nice and usable. likewise, a 20gb hard disk costs about the same as a 40gb one - i think this is actually quite a sensible basic spec.
do they? in the UK we've all binned them and get british telecom to pipe the calls directly into a box on site.
remember webtv? and eden's aren't cheap - check component prices.
...go get all the bits, put them in a big cardboard box, and give it to your gran for 23 dollars a month. operate a 24 hour helpline, and see how long it takes her to build the machine and get online.
65 UKP here for OEM copies, and that's from the cheapest suppliers. doesn't get any cheaper unless you're buying 100+ either. wanna post a link to your supplier?
and it'd cost more to make an AOL-OEM one that took it out. it won't be costing the end user anything, so why not leave it there?
Has anyone here used a Celeron 2ghz with a 5400 rpm hard drive on Windows XP? With only 256mb RAM, that machine is going totally page file as soon as the massive Windows XP finishes booting (which could be a while). I can't understand everyone is saying it's an OK PC for really cheap. I've personally worked on HP's and Dells (the $499 types) and once the boot was over, I was thrown right back into the 486 days. I wouldn't wish one of these pieces of poo on anyone, and certainly wouldn't want someone to pay for it.
good one, really.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
I have to wonder what kind of shoddy components are in a PC that, for under $600 includes a monitor and valid Windows XP licence...
Probably the only thing in there that wouldn't be dodgy is the CPU - being Intel and all.
Yeah yeah, troll troll... but as the former CTO (up till Feb 04) of a successful small computer manfacturer who watched competitors drop like flies, I've found in the ~1000 PC's a year we sent out, 1 or less came back every year with problems that could be traced to a dodgy Intel CPU), and FYI, I did a lot of tech work myself, and I was heavily involved with purchasing of parts and new technologies. As a general rule, Intel couldn't be beaten on quality of product.
Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com)