Free PC With French Broadband Connection

robson writes "Neuf Cegetel announced the purchase of AOL France, an ISP that counts 500,000 broadband subscribers and the arrival of 'the box,' an Internet access terminal. Code-name: Easy Gate. It's a computer, working under the Linux OS. It's a router. It's a DSL modem. It's also a telephone. All in one. Easy Gate will be available from November, the actual 'box' consists of: an Intel 852 GM, 6 ports USB 2.0, 512 Mb of RAM and 512 Mb of Flash memory."

Dellised?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

So it's basicly a company giving away a free low quality Dell PC.. not a bad deal but I expect they'll wan tyou ro return it when you end the service as is the deal with my "free" router.

Return of the Minitel

[Anonymous Coward]

The French had something like this long before the Internet became commercially available: Minitel. It was wildly popular because the device was given to subscribers for free.

Re:Thank god the French were prepared!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nearly everyone in europe has monitors lying around... It's illegal to throw electrical equipment out improperly in the EU, you can only exchange your old model for a new model (there's a surcharge on all electrical goods as retailers just pass the cost on to the consumer...) or pay a special collection depot to take your kit. Yeah, that might sound annoying to an american. But on the plus side, we don't drink so much cadmium :-)

I have 3 LCD panels and 3 CRTs at the moment. I only use 2 of the 3 LCD panels. Yeah, I'm reading /., but if anything I'm _better_ at shifting old kit than most because of geekiness. Chances are, if you're in europe and ask around your street nowadays, you can get several monitors, not to mention lawnmowers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, cheese sandwich makers, fondue sets, soda stream machines and god only knows what else.

The New Minitel

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

If all of you Francophobes could untwist your shorts for a minute, you might realize that this is pretty much an updated version of the Minitel [wikipedia.org], which most geeks thought was pretty damn cool back in the days of expensive 300 baud dialup.

Besides, it runs Linux.

Re:What Distro?

[RAMMS+EIN]

According to PC Inpact [pcinpact.com] (in French), it's a custom distro, all open source, and it includes Firefox, Abiword, Gnumeric, GIMP, Gkview, Ekiga, MPlayer, and Bizanga, among other things.

Re:My head asplode

[TheRaven64]

It's not AOL, it's the company that just bought AOL's French division. No word on the processor. Some kind of Celeron, from the chipset, but I don't know whether it's the low power version. If it is, I'd be interested in one of these machines; quiet, low-power, and almost certainly cheap.

It's worth noting that this business model is not that novel in France. Before the Internet, the French had a network called Minitel [wikipedia.org]. A load of dumb terminals were handed out for free to French businesses and households, as a replacement for a printed telephone directory. This gave access to telephone directory listings and a number of commercial services. The 'phone company took a connection fee, and other, premium services could also be charged directly to the bill. This machine is a logical successor to the Minitel; it's a machine which (should) require no more maintenance than a dumb terminal, and can be used to access the network that many regard as the successor to the Minitel network. Presumably with only 512MB of local storage, the user is expected to keep most of their data (email history, etc) on the server.

Photos + details

[Daas]

For those of you who can read french, here is the official annoucement :

http://www.groupeneufcegetel.fr/html/Presse/Neuf_C egetel_lance_Easy_Neuf_et_invente_l_Easy_Gate_la_p remiere__box__associant_l_acces_a_l_Internet_haut_ debit_et_les_principales_fonctionnalites_d_un_ordi nateur.html [groupeneufcegetel.fr]

They say it is an all-in-one service that will include the PC, the LCD screen, mouse, keyboard and webcam. Internet service (up to 8Mbits). Applications including web browser, e-mail reader/writer, instant messaging, an office suite and a multimedia reader. Security features will include a firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-popup and parental control. An easy to use interface and tutorials on how to use the internet. Support will be included and provided by Neuf Cegetel and they can remotly connect to the computer for easy troubleshooting plus updates will be automatically downloaded.

The distro is a custom one but all sources will be available on their website !

Seems better to me then a Windows PC...

Hi-res pics : http://www.neufgiga.com/partage_neuf.php?folder=10 76782 [neufgiga.com]


Daas

Re:2006 is the year of linux on the desktop...

[Anonymous Coward]

You know how the Vichy regime came to power? After the Germans invaded and most of the French military had been destroyed they deposed the existing Prime Minister (Reynaud) and his top people in the resulting chaos, Petain claimed power despite Reynaud never being legitamately deposed - it was a kind of coup. The US immediately recognized the Vichy regime, allowing them to claim legitimacy and consolidate power. It wasn't until the US finally decided to enter the war that they supported the Free French Forces and began providing limited supplies to the French Resistance - so by your logic the US are just as much collaborationists.
In reality, the remnants of the army in France formed the backbone of the French Resistance, and the North African divisions formed the backbone of the Free French Forces. Most French people did not support the Vichy government and viewed Petain and Weygand as traitors. Almost every single Vichy leader was convicted of crimes against humanity and most were sentenced to death in French courts after the Nazis were expelled from the country, at the local level many were murdered when the Nazis were overthrown. Even as recently as 1993 a Vichy leader who had been acquitted in his trial after the war was re-tried for crimes against humanity (although he was murdered before his trial could be completed). The collaborationists were a small subset of the French who were empowered by the Nazi regime. The mass of the French people did not support them then and do not support them now. The US had it's own collaborationists and Nazi-sympathizers, people like Henry Ford, Charles Lindberg, and the leaders of IBM - none of them were ever brought to justice though.

Re:2006 is the year of linux on the desktop...

[4D6963]

maybe so many died because they sucked

Or maybe so many died because they didn't wait until 1942 to fight, or maybe because they got actually invaded.

Btw according to the wikipedia link someone else posted in a reply to you, about twice more american soldiers died from that war than french, but they also fought in the Pacific..

Oh well, you're probably the type of american (what else could you be?) who thinks that latin americans speak latin and who thinks there are cheerleaders in french schools.

Re:2006 is the year of linux on the desktop...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but:
- relative to the population, France had a 0.5% military casualty rate, the US 0.3%.
- total casualties (including civilian) for France were 562,000, and 418,000 for the US (4 times less than France relative to the population).

France declared war on Germany on 09/39 (after the invasion of Poland), whereas the US declared war on Germany on 12/41 (after Pearl Harbor). Cold feet?

France has had more fatalities in UN peacekeeping operations than the US.

Who is a coward again?