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Earthlink Sponsors Cheap Linux PCs
prostoalex writes "Earthlink and Microtel are offering cheap Xandros-based computers to anyone who's willing to sign up for Earthlink dial-up service at $22 a month. The desktops on Microtel Web site start at $70 for a basic AMD Sempron machine, Microtel laptops start at $399. ExtremeTech says there is also a SkypeOut gift certificate: 'All Xandros PCs and laptops include free Skype-to-Skype calling worldwide, plus an exclusive bonus voucher for up to 120 minutes of SkypeOut calling to any phone number in the world.'"
Does anyone use Xandros? How is it compared to like Fedora, or Mandrake?
It seems pretty fluffy to me (probaby a good thing for who they are trying to target with these discount PCs).
Seems kinda pricey given the number of laptops available on eBay. -X
Could Bill Gates be right about hardware costing dirt in the future? Since they are selling this on software Gates is kind of 100% right.
but I don't think they come with that Skype deal. I don't think I'd link up with earthlink @ $22/mo for this offer, too bad i am not in the market though.... bbl going to call up some friends and family to help them out and get them moved into a less frustrated enviroment (non-Windows) :-P
do you have shinyfeet?
I'm glad that more companies are starting to pick up on cheap hardware combined with free software. This will be great for the "moms and pops" who don't care about what they use as long as it works. By offering lots of cheap (with specific hardware) companies can reduce costs for support since there arn't options. It's undercutting the competition just like Ford did, you can have "any color you want, as long as its black". Looking at the specs on the system they don't seem that bad, comparable to a deal Frys had a few weekends ago where you could pick up a full system for $100 (Sempron, CD-Rom, Harddrive, case etc). Some ram upgrade and those machines would probably be plenty for most users.
If they make it so simple that they send it to you, you plug it in, and it works, that's really great for unsophisticated computer users.
I wish them the best of luck.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
why would anyone pay $22/month for dialup when you can get some sort of broadband for $10/month more (or dialup somewhere else for so much less?)?
am i missing something?
I'm against picketing but I don't know how to show it.
Free hardware and Free software beat that billy boy...
Got Code?
I understand the purpose of this, however I cringe whenever I see dialup being promoted into longevity.
The internet content of today chokes on dialup. The internet content of the future will not be able to live without broadband.... so why promote expanded use of any kind of dialup? Are we still in an age where there are enough people without broadband (or the cash to afford it) that we must cater in this fashion? Should this be so, efforts to bring prices down in the broadband market and increased efforts towards greater availiability (though less of a problem now) are far more meritorius than taking a dead horse and pulling a Frankenstein on it.
The Crimson Dragon
Well, at least it's running Linux. Because on dialup, it'd probably take at least 12 months to download the patches to secure XP.
If you've got $21.95/month for dialup, but don't have an extra $2-4/month for DSL from your phone provider (or $20/month from your cable provider), you've got no business spending $333.39 ($69.99 + 12 * 21.95) or "$69.99" for a low-end PC with no monitor.
Use $300 to buy a year's worth of broadband, and with the remaining cash, support your nearest surplus store ($50) or computer recycler ($10), garage sale ($50), or even lighten the load on your apartment's dumpster ($0.00).
Well said... it amazes me that Apple zealots still think Altivec is the only game in town, and that Intel only has MMX. It's true that SSE2 and SSE3 don't have catchy names, but they do the same thing as Altivec and VMX
Um... yeah.
All Xandros PCs and laptops include free Skype-to-Skype calling worldwide
:^)
Wow, that's generous! Now if only their internet access offered free access to CNN.com and slashdot.org, worldwide, I'd be putting in my order right away!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Wouldn't Skype on dialup be kind of useless?
Also, does that $70 machine even have a modem that works with Linux?
I worked for an out sourced call center for Earthlink in late 03. At that time, Earthlink didn't support Linux at all.
I had about 3 calls about people wanting to set up Kppp, but I was told by my supervisor to not say anything but "Earthlink does not support any linux distribution"
One other call was someone calling for a number, but at the time we had to ask what OS they were using, and I did as my supervisor told me to do....
Right after I gave the statement, the caller gave me an ass chewing, saying that he just needed a number because he just moved to a new state.
I'm glad to see that one of the bigger dial up companies has changed their stance on Linux... or have they? Anyone know?
I thought for sure AOL was going to offer something like this after they purchased Netscape a long time ago. Imagine if Joe user's pc is mangled; the ISP rep says "insert the recover CD into your machine and reboot" which is some kind of live distro that lets the ISP guy log into the machine remotely (no matter how mangled the OS may be) and fix the machine or even possibly restore the OS back to the default.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I noticed that the $399 machine comes with a VIA C3 CPU, which I found interesting...
Has anybody got any numbers/benchmarks showing the C3 performances/power consumption versus Intel/AMD CPUs?
And, more importantly has anybody actually bought one of these machines, tested it, and installed something other than Xandros on it? OpenBSD and Slackware comes to mind, but any other distribution would also be interesting...
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
In other news, people are selling massively 8086-based PC's containing enormous 5.25" disks (imagine how much GB of data can fit on this) for only $2.
Didn't PeoplePC try and fail at this just a few years ago? I don't remember if they were using Windows on the boxes, but the business model of dial-up and "free" computers didn't pan out then. What has changed?
It will be interesting to see if Earthlink/Xandros keeps selling this unit (or ones like it) in perpetuity. If Earthlink can make money on a low-dollar, low monthly subscription Linux desktop, then it proves that Linux is ready for the masses. With the high cost of tech support calls, any technology that is not drop-dead simple becomes a money-losing nightmare for the provider.
I'm going to watch this experiment carefully because, if it succeeds, then Linux desktop share should climb significantly.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
So let me get this straight.. I pay $263 to Earthlink to save $150 from microtel? Hrmmmm.
It worked so well for PeoplePC and freepc.com. They'll be losing money on every unit, but heck, they'll make it up on volume, right?
What the mom-n-pop's-mom-n-pop crown really need is a machine that skips the os and boots straight to Yahoo!
It's a little unnerving when I view their website and realize they stole their "Customize It" buttons from Dell.
Under 'processer', it says 'AMD 2.0GHz Sempron Processor 2200+'.
Do even a tiny ammount of Googling, and you will see that the Sempron 2200+ is a 1.5 ghz chip. So, this means one of two things... either A) they're blatently lying about the clockspeed, or B) they're pre-overclocking the chips... which is the case?
If they're saying it's equivelant to a 2.0 ghz Intel chip in speed (which most AMD fans, myself included, would agree with), that's one thing. If they're pre-overclocking the chips, that's another (which some people will support, and others won't)... but in either case, they should be clearer in what they're saying and doing, since the way they're saying things now is somewhat suspicious.
Not testing before releasing
Some nice things about these boxes:
They're actually cheaper with Xandros than with XP. Not by much, but I guess that means they're actually paying Xandros and not Microsoft.
They all come with OpenOffice. Even the versions with WinXP. And MS Office is clearly listed as a (very) pricey option.
This makes it very clear that, even for users not ready to adopt Linux, there are big cost savings to be had by adopting OOo.
Now if all vendors would start offering Firefox and OOo on their boxes (with or without WinXP), that might make a real splash.
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
Apple Zelots ...
CANT HANDLE The TRUTH !!!
1. Get customer to sign up and get a cheap computer
2. Get customer hooked on your service and *SUPPORT*
3. Years go by
4. ???
5. Profit !!!
Linux is not that easy to use and they will surely need to provide some support, but the profit in having the customer this hooked on your support is probably worth it.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
I want some of what you're smoking.
$30/month for DSL (on top of POTS) but that only applies if you use one of the LOC's partner ISPs -- which often doesn't include Earthlink.
For cable, you're looking at $40/month for basic cable plus the same $30/month, except this time you have to use the cable company as your ISP, so Earthlink is locked out altogether.
Either way: pay for broadband, use another ISP, and pay Earthlink for online services. Approximate cost: $50/month.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I'm sure that skype is going to work great over Earthlink dialup.
It won't be the processor that'll be the problem, it'll be the motherboard. The motherboard will be a really cheap budget thing with everything onboard. Are they going to include a screen too? They must be making quite a nasty loss if they are.
Dial-numbers and all the IP addresses needed to setup the dialup connection are available on the Earthlink website. Of course you need to be able to get on the internet somewhere to view those, but still, every library i've ever been to had free internet access. I've also never had any problem with getting the IP addresses of the DNS servers and such over the phone.
Should have RTFA. Appears like they are doing.
Someday you'll look back at this and will see how stupid you look, arguing about .5 ghz.
Earthlink has a new twist to differentiate themselves, charges enough for the service to break even on the additional expense in the first year, and makes a nice mark up after the first year. They probably hope to lure the large and still growing segment of middle age people who just want to send email and get on the Internet occasionally.
Even Xandros gets additional exposure for the non-free version of their OS. Given the fuzzy marketing write up on Microtel's site, what great aunt isn't going to agree that it's a great deal for only $20 more?
Can I consider Microtel a reputable company when they blatantly steal the "Customize It" button from the Dell website?
Whats up with the arrow keys on the left side of the laptop? That's someting weird and not conventional.
I got a check for $55.00 by accepting a decent desktop system (for it's day) and agreeing to a 12 month contract with Earthlink. And the system I got for less than free came with Windows (windows ME). So it used to be you could get a cheap computer without having to resort to running some weird OS.
.. now that's a system you really won't be playing games on.
You aren't going to be playing games on a Linux box anyways, so honestly an AMD Sempron is massive overkill. Look at the Laptop offerings for that company. VIA C3 1.2Ghz
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Wait a minute. It isn't 1999! Wasn't PeoplePC or some other discount dialup ISP offering a service like this one back in the hey days?
~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
I must post this AC because any criticism of either Apple or AMD in
When AMD invented this "+" marketing kludge, it became inevitable that people would confuse this with clock speed. The Sempron 2200+ is equivalent to an Intel 2.2 GHz chip, of course... in AMD's own benchmarks. I'm sure that Intel could make a benchmark where an Intel 1.5 GHz chip would be faster than an AMD chip with a 2.2 GHz clock (which would that be? A "Pluspron 5000+", perhaps?)
I think this plan has failed before with the PC hardware, but what about just the software?
Imagine AOL with a custom distro of Linux. Keep in mind the enormous CD distribution that AOL has before you flame me...
Most users do not differentiate AOL from the internet, so why not just dual boot into AOLinux. The average Joe would stop using Windows because they only use AOL anyway. This plan could work as long as it installed as a dual boot to allow people to continue playing games and using create-a-card software on the Windows partition. Better yet, get WINE working seamlessly so that they can use the kids educational/entertainment software. Most people I know would not dream of ditching Windows because they allow the PC to be a babysitter.
What do you think? Could AOL, who probably doesn't have any fans here, sway the sheep to make a bunch of geeks' dreams come true?
DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY A DIME!! - THEY ARE THEIVES AND PROVIDE HORRIBLE SERVICE!!
!!simply google earthlink + evil and view the results!!
For EarthLink CEO Garry Betty, 2003 was a very good year. Betty took home almost $1 million -- $346,790 as a bonus -- for cutting EarthLink's workforce by one-fourth, leaving 1,300 people out of work. In January 2004, he announced 1,300 more job cuts.
EarthLink not only victimized its employees, it also made them train the low-wage replacement workers and threatened to take away their severance pay if they spoke publicly about the situation.
Don't forget to add the flat-rate $50 shipping and handling fee to the REAL cost of this so-called deal.
Damn! You almost got me that time!
...your stopping by and installing my broadband connection? Where I live you have a choice of dialup or tin can and string. How much are you asking for your service, and what is my transfer rate? Are there any caps? Really, I'm serious, when can you be here to install it, got my checkbook handy. It's nice that you want to give us an option,l but who is going to pay for it? the government, big business? they would have to charge us a thousand a month for years to break even probably if some business did it.
There's theory then practicality. Wish in one hand, crap in the other.
We "cling to dialup" because in a lot of places that's ALL there is, do you get it now, do you GET IT? No company is going to run any expensive wired solution to hit 5 houses someplace. They don't sell brand new 5 grand ferraris, they don't run broadband to every house, and *that's it*. Believe it or not, some places are "out in the country" where your food comes from, before it looks like your cheetos anyway. Accept reality, we do. It's a tradeoff, so we are thrilled to even get dialup, even at 20 bucks a month. A cheap computer thrown in would be great for a lot of folks.
This wired "broadband is *not* going to happen unless some government does it, the capitalists just will NOT do it because it costs them money, they would never make any money. I can see their point, too, it's just reality. Maybe within a year ot two some wireless solution may happen, don't know. The same capitalists been pushing that chimera as well for years now, still don't see it. And guess what? There's millions of us, literally millions. The US is a big nation and it's mostly *not* heavy urbanized geographically,it's mostly rural, and most of the rural areas don't have broadband but they still have PEOPLE. This has been true like forever, as long as the net has been around. You can't get cable either, that's why you see so many satellite TV dishes, because it's the ONLY option, that or 1.5 fuzzy channels of analog OTA. Now 15 miles away, sure, you can get cable TV, and a choice of broadband, but a lot of us don't want to live downtown, even if town is only 20,000 people or something. Someone has to grow the food and timber for people, right? Let's accept that reality too, 'k?
Gonna go AC on this one so you don't take it as a flame, (it's not, I am just steamed over the issue almost daily and I cringe whenever people say "just get broadband!!)Just don't want to discuss it anymore, just want to set the record straight. I know you are well meaning but it helps to just "get the facts" down. Dialup is going to be here for years and more years, because it works and there's no other inexpensive option.
"Can I consider Microtel a reputable company when they blatantly steal the "Customize It" button from the Dell website?"
Can I consider [Joe 'illegal filetrader' Smith] a reputable [person] when [he] blatantly steals the [mp3,video,book,game] from the [artist]?
I have broadband, but their website is SLOW. Configuring a PC, it reloads every time you change an option. It must be hosted on one of their $70 computers as a server.
You buy one of their monitors! They charge an extra $160 for a 15" CRT! You can buy a good 17" for around $100. I got one at a yard sale for $5 (The color red is broken. Sometimes it goes off and everything looks cyan, but it still works.)
Everyone seems to forget about the people who don't live in urban areas. Dialup is still many people's only option. There are still many places in this country where FM radio doesn't get to.
Well there is more than one issue here, if Earthlink have done their sums right they might make it work, I'm surprised Vonage have not done the same thing. I do not think companies realise the freedom open source gives them, not because they don't have to pay the danegeld
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
This reeks of an Internet rebate scam. Buy a cheap PC for almost nothing, but be forced into a $22/month dial-up contract for a few years.
How is this different than a $400 Internet rebate on an eMachines PC running XP Home, which costs $470, and is $70 after rebates, but you have to pay AOL/MSN/Earthlink $22/month for 3 to 5 years?
Why don't I just pay $300 for a Linux PC, and then pick my own ISP for a much lower price per month?
$22 for 12 months ends up being $264, plus $70 for the PC, makes $334 for a whole year. $792 for three years of ISP service at $22/month, $359.64 for three years of a $9.99/month ISP service. $432.36 saved by using your own ISP choice at the $9.99/month price. That money could easily go to pay for a nice PC running XP Home, a down payment on a Mac Mini, or a $300 Linux PC. Save even more after five years.
Besides I got a $27.99 DSL ISP account going, why should I lock myself into a slower dialup service for just a few bucks cheaper? $5.99/month savings does not justify my being stuck with a slower Internet access account for a few years or so.
I got a better idea, in fact I did it already, I spent $400 on parts from Newegg.com, built my own system, and installed my own DSL modem and DSL router, and I have a much better deal than this POS deal can offer me. Instead of a Septron, I have an Athlon XP, I have more RAM, faster CPU, bigger hard drive, etc.
I am not going to fall for the latest and greatest Internet rebate scam.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
I couldn't find anything on Earthlink's site about it.. what happens if you sign up for the service, hate it, and want to cancel? What do they do then?
I recall some similar deal with MSN years ago, and if people cancelled their service, they were hit with $300 early termination fees.
So, is this really "Earthlink spreading Linux" or marketing drones saying "Hey, this Linux stuff is a nice and cheap way to lock in more customers!" ?
That's for sure. There's a Type-II, along with everything else that the Walmart versions have, and it's cheaper because Windows Home isn't bundled with it.
The C3 puts out far less heat than the Pentiums and AMDs, although it's performance is hampered by the half speed SSE/MMX units. I wish I had the need for another machine. I'd pickup the C3, and slap another 512MB in it. Excellent little machines for college. I dunno how good the display is, though. It might ghost during movies.
Earthlink needs the business and is working hard to get customers every way it can. Don't know if they still own People PC, but they just recently bought Access-4-Free and Joi Internet from Hawk Communications. Customers from those providers would transfer to EarthLink by default if they didn't make the effort to cancel. I had Joi Internet and cancelled immediately upon receiving the news, as I had an experience with EarthLink a few years ago concerning billing that I would never again risk by giving them billing info. Anyone who would be happy with dial-up, as I am, has no need to pay $22 a month. I get it ad-free for $6.75 a month from an honest provider. Better to save and buy one's computer of choice. Reminds me of the AOL deal aimed at seniors and "Latinos", assuming that those customers had so little knowledge that they'd bite on a pretty bad offer.
damn, and i just spent my mod points.
It's only a one-year contract. Still not for me but not as gougeriffic as $792.
[I'm not the OP]
Well I live in the capital city and can get broadband of several types. BUT I don't have it. Why? Simple, really. One I don't have the economics for it, and when push comes to shove I'll keep a roof over my head long before I'll invest in broadband. You can thank the economic downturn for that state of affairs. The other is that I didn't really use broadband that much. Some music, some iso's, a more pleasent experience. However since I was out making a living instead of siting on my ass all day browsing slashdot. I wasn't using the internet, or cable TV that much. certainly not enough to justify the bill I was paying.
Now I have a cheap phone service, with cheap internet, and that's the way it's going to remain for a good while unless the boss or the OP wants to pay for an upgrade.
Sure, the PC is $69 although upgrading it to be decent adds at least another $30, but the SINGLE shipping option is $50 flat-rate.
So your $69 PC nearly doubles in cost.
Is this a joke?
Sig for hire.
Um, I have news for you. Most people on dialup DON"T have a second phone line. Nor is it really required. Theres the latest standard that allows you to suspend your session and answer the phone, and for those with older modems. There's a box you can buy at wal-mart that'll do basically the same thing. And that's ASSUMING that you're interested in being interrupted during your internet session (which BTW can be interrupted by an operator if it's really important).
Yeah, they'dve had to pay me to use Windows ME, too :-).
The brief stats they give on there system are different from the ones give when you go to customize the system, (the base stats give) well that and
"Operating System
Xandros SurfSide Linux
Anti-Virus Software
Xandros Anti-Virus, 12 month subscription"
is the question I need answered.
Sky Dayton, founder of Earthlink, as well as other top brass and major shareholders, are members of the Church of Scientology.
EarthLink sucks donkey dicks. Enough said.