14 DAY TRIAL // A desktop computer for just $99. This is what the company behind the Zonbu desktop PC is offering and promoting. $99 for a desktop may seem petty change but there is a catch: the unit comes with no monitor, mouse, keyboard or optical DVD drive.
On the bright side, Zonbu offers from the start the full versions of more than 20 popular types of Linux based open source programs ranging from email clients and browsers to office applications. Zonbu also comes with automatic back up and online storage for a monthly subscription as well as a design that is aimed at cutting energy costs and making computing have a lesser environmental impact. According to the manufacturing company, cited by the news site TechNewsWorld, Zonbu is aimed at transforming and simplifying the process of buying and using a computer, its main highlights being ease of installation, affordability and energy efficiency. Despite these nice features, Zonbu comes with a few glitches because of its concept. As the system does not include a traditional hard disk drive of files storage and only a small flash memory storing unit is integrated into the package, users who need larger amounts of storage space must buy that space in the form of an online storage box. Pricing ranges from $12.95 a month for a small 25GB storage box to $19.95 a month for 100 GB.
Users may chose from paying for a two year storage box or they may choose the month to month subscription model, but in this case Zonbu will cost $249, while the 100GB storage option will reach over $500. When compared to computing systems form the $500 range, Zonbu is not really an attractive solution as for example Dell sells its Inspiron 531s for just $529. And the Dell machine comes with a better processor, more memory and it includes a DVD drive, beside display, keyboard and mouse as well as a hard disk drive with 160GB of storage space.
Zonbu's programs are stored inside the small flash memory, only 4GB, that is integrated into the system. So even if your Internet connection goes down, the system can still work and all the locally stored documents will be available. While Zonbu is a great idea for saving energy costs and eliminating all the problems associated with proprietary software suites, there are a number of problems that send this system to the bottom of my shopping list. First of all comes the performance issue. Zonbu simply crawls because of its slow and energy-oriented processing unit as well as low amount of installed memory. Another problem is that users cannot add their own programs so if you need a specific program that the manufacturing company forgot to provide, you are seriously out of luck. The last problem deals with the fact that most of the programs are still in a testing phase, a beta if you will, so a lot of crashes may appear, slowing down your work.