http://www.zonbu.com/home/index.htm

It's being billed as the first GREEN pc, apparently it uses a VIA chipset/cpu, has NO internal storage other than 4gb or ram, and the OS (i think its gentoo),
it has 6 USB ports as well as RJ45 and mouse/keyb etc.

BUT since the via is a low power setup, NO FAN is required, making it ultra quiet. and it uses 25 or 75 watts? I cant rememebr

MY thought is that this would make a STELLER MCNL candidate.

Imagine, at THAT size with that little power, you could put that bad boy under the front seat of your car, plug into your portable dvd screen, plug in a portable 60GB had and BOOM an instant CAR pc!

now I just need to "find" an extra $250 to try one.

the deal is that its $99 plus $13-20 a month, for THEIR online storage solution.

or $250 to buy one outright.

if anyone knows of anywhere ELSE that these things (w/o the OS in ROM) can be bought PLEASE let me know.

and if you can think of other MCNL applications......

It looks like it's already running Linux. They made their own stripped down version. I think you could buy the device, and install it to the flash HD with a preformatted MCNLive stick. At least, I hope this works.

right thats my hope to.

for YERS these "bookshelf" pc's have been around, butuntil recently no one has been willing to sell the components or a true barebones, for less than $600, now it looks like I can get the mb/cpu for $70, or a true barebones for $250.

Has anyone ever tried to install MCNL on a CF card?

The site says it costs $99 with a $12.50 subscription, which is optional, but necessary to keep the unit up to date.

Why bother with MCNL? It comes with a custom Linux-based OS that seems pretty cool. I don't think it'll take too kindly to other OSes... but I could be wrong.

Looks like an awesome box and service, but I'd have to play with one before making up my mind.

SoulSe: time to try MCNLive

The feature is: you can make in no time your own 'Linux OS' just the way _you_ like it. No matter if you are experienced or not.

A pre-installed Gentoo is not bad, I guess. But if you look at the zonbu website, you need to be a very experienced developer to even add a single application. The zonbu is an almost closed system - for an average or even an experienced user.
I also got the impression it is not made to easily replace its own pre-installed Linux.

I personally would always prefer an open, easy to customize system and open hardware without a suscription.

ditto what chris said.

besides why pay a monthly fee forever if you can own it outright.

but as suggested earlier, i think i'm going to pass on the pre made boxes and build my own C7 based ystem, then we will ALL know whether MCNBL likes it or not

Well obviously if you want to add your own apps it's not for you. They designed it for people who need a simple computing service - not power users who want to hack their boxes.

So if you don't need it, don't buy it - but that doesn't make it a bad solution.

I like the Asus EEE PC concept, but I'll wait for the "large" 10-inch screen version, early next year.

I've never said it was a bad solution.

i was just trying to see how FLEXIBLE their hardware could be?

they could send it w/o an OS for all I need

that IS nice, reminds me ov something else from a few years ago (petium 1 days), anynoe have a pricetag on that bad boy?

They start around $200 and go up according to size of hdd, etc.

Has anyone an AOpen mini or a Mac mini, they are not fanless, what about the noise on those? They both can run Linux...

WOW

Thats Nice, my WIFE would love one of those.

<off we go a hunting>

Play with it before you buy it though. Apparently the screen is horrible and it has some other niggles.

WELL

It looks like the ZONBU or any of the other C7 series might not be a perfect fit for MCNL.

I asked HIGHKING if he thought FREEVO, in its earlier configuration would run on a C7, and he stated that unaltered MCNL or MDV wouldnt run.

and being the cheap guy that I am, I bought a 800MHZ C3 based system and tried to boot a clean version of Toronto on it.

It loads the initial menu, but no choice thereafter will allow a complete login. they all reboot.

I havent taken the time to look for errors or anything since I know that some of the companies selling the C7 setups will also provide you with a preconfigured ISO for certain lnux distros.

and since this would be a single purpose project (500GB MP3 player anyone?) the actual distro doesnt really matter.

but sigh having a REALLY quiet pc ab was a good idea!

BTW someone asked about the noise factor, the C3 that I'm using (Via Epia) although last years model , is cpu fanless, the case that its in now, has a fan, but with the MB "pizza boxed" on top of it you can REALLY tell the difference on boot up.

It's obviously been a while since this thread started but I thought I'd add some notes based on my experient.

Firstly, you can now buy the Artigo Pico-ITX kit that Via puts out for about $300. If comes with everything except the HDD and RAM. You get a 1 GHz PC that has an up-to-date chipset and features and can run Windows XP and multiple versions of Linux. It is really small. I tried one out earlier in the year but returned it since Via doesn't have "proper" Linux support for the graphics chipset. I had to use the VESA driver which meant that doing anything graphical was really slow. As well, with a limit of 1GB RAM options were limited for MS Windoze. This system did have a built in fan that cooled the CPU and case, which was a little annoying.

I've also found and am still using a small embedded PC I built using using an Alix 3c3 embedded device. The board has video, audio, LAN, built-in 256MB RAM, CF-slot, Mini-PCI slot all powered by a 500MHz Geode LX processor. Now this PC isn't a power house, but it's silent. I put in a Mini-PCI Wifi card I cannibalized from an Airlink 101 AWLL3025 PCI card. I had it running XFce on MDV 2008.1 and it was able to play DivX movies without any problems. The only storage options you have are CF or USB. I'm using an 8GB Micro-drive so I'm safe for lots of writing. But this could be a great silent PC with the OS booting of a Read-only CF and using the USB as storage.

sounds pretty cool, actually I have one of the artigo kits marked in my EBAY watch.

now i just need an extra $300 to fall from the sky.....

since what i'm really wanting is a simplistic car PC to act as a HUGE mp3 player, it sounds like it would be perfect. I'll probably use "wolvix" as thats what I have running on my Via C3 pc now. Its the best distro I could find to run that machine. Because as you suggested, the linux/graphics issues drive me up the WALL.

J

Mindwave,
It's possible that generic drivers would work but at this time, no one, either Via or the Unichrome developers have a properly working driver. I think it is possible to get limited 2D support, but not 3D, XvMC, DRI, etc.

i'm not really interested in 3d, i dont even use that on my desktop.