Zonbu- Green Colour PC

PCs have become a bit ho-hum lately. But I'm predicting that this is the year we're going to see new designs and innovation in the PC world. As a matter of fact, at the recent Computex (a very large computer show in Taipei) there were some extraordinary ultra slim PCs on display, measuring about seven inches in width and weighing as little as two pounds. PCs you can balance in the palm of your hand. I wrote about some of these new ultra mobile PCs recently.

But one of the most unique designs I've seen is a completely different sort of PC entirely, and it doesn't cost thousands of dollars. It's a $99 PC called Zonbu. It's not a notebook nor a traditional desktop. It's the size of a small cigar box, but it combines a "green PC" design with a Linux OS and a web based service. In many ways, Zonbu is the sensible, affordable, and future-thinking way to go.

According to Gregoire Gentil, one of Zonbu's founders, the idea was to bring some of the benefits of the workplace environment, with its managed PCs, to the home. The Zonbu business model is more like a cell phone carrier's than a PC vendor's. You sign up with Zonbu; it provides both the service and hardware.

To get started, you attach a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and an Ethernet connection to the Zonbu box. (A wireless version will be available at a later date.) The box boots up immediately and sends you to the Zonbu site. In addition to the $99 box, you'll pay $12.95 a month for 100GB of storage on the Zonbu site. Your monthly fee also guarantees updates to software and drivers.

Inside the Zonbu there are no moving parts (hence no fan), so the unit uses very little electricity. Without a hard drive or fan, it's also blissfully quiet. Instead of a traditional hard drive you get a 4GB compact flash drive that houses the applications. Running the Linux operating system, Zonbu comes loaded with some of the most popular open source applications. Applications include a web browser with Google, games, a photo organizer, media player, a full Office suite (that can read and write to MS Office file formats), and even an iTunes-like application. It runs Skype and a universal instant messenger. Zonbu claims the software on the machine is a $2,000 value. For those of you that haven't used some of the open source applications, they feel very much like the Windows or Mac apps that you might be used to. Zonbu's software choices, for the most part, are best of breed in the open source world: Open Office.org and Mozilla Firefox, for example.

Zonbu's creators claim that the box is carbon emission-neutral because of its low power consumption. And, because of its tiny size, they say they are minimizing e-waste, both in the production and disposal of the unit. Finally, the Zonbu manufacturing process complies with the standard of the European RoHS Directive to minimize the use of harmful substances in the manufacturing process.

Beginning in July, customers can buy Zonbu on the web site and participate in an early customer program. If you're thinking that Zonbu is perfection, think again. There is a downside to being different. If there are certain Windows or Mac applications you need to use (say, Photoshop for instance) you're out of luck. A Linux machine is not going to run most of the games your kids want to play, either. Synching up your BlackBerry and other peripherals is also not an easy thing to do. At this time there's no support for Bluetooth, webcams, or scanners either. And if the company doesn't make it, well, you've got a little box of nothing, since so much of the experience is housed on their servers. And remember that by the time you've spent $13 a month on service, plus your $99, you could have gotten a pretty spiffy PC.

My vote would be to think seriously about a machine like this as a second or third household machine for surfing the Internet, office applications and simple media tasks. It's blissfully easy to set up and manage, lightweight, quiet, well stocked with software, backup and management included, and it's "green." Not perfect, but it's sure a welcome addition to the world of me-too computers.