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."

I Hope...

[ackthpt]

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."

I hope it's secure. I don't need SPAM from 500K new sources.

A win for Linux? Maybe encourage more mainstream plugin and webapp development? It's France and EU turf so it looks like a good thing on the surface.

Total cost of ownership

[Opportunist]

Hmm... considering AOL is not the cheapest, certainly not the best and by far not the most reliable service, and that box costs about a box of ciggies on the 2nd hand market, my guess would be that the TCOO is by far lower with another provider and a bought box after less than a year.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:French this, French that

[Fordiman]

Wow. The last in the apprently long line to completely fail to get the joke. And this one's a flamer.

Emphasis on the last five letters.

Actually, I'm pretty sure there's a name for people such as yourself, who ignorantly sling insults while failing completely to pay attention...

I'm also pretty sure that the term had been wrongfully ascribed to an entire subset of the human genome - mostly as defined by a particular set of appearance traits - causing it to be too politically charged to be used appropriately. Like it should be in this case.

My /. submission of last week on that item

[A.K.A_Magnet]

... which was rejected; Posted here for details. (too many details?)

Neuf [www.neuf.fr], the third French ISP (in terms of subscribers), has announced [groupeneufcegetel.fr] (in French) today a new offer, "EasyNeuf [easyneuf.fr]" (still in French), aiming at reaching people who don't have a PC: a small PC-style "plug-and-play" appliance called NeufGate running GNU/Linux. It will include (optionnally) a monitor (different sizes available), a mice and a webcam for 99euros (with the 14" monitor) and cover most common usages: e-mail, instant messaging (MSN), web browsing (Firefox), videoconferencing (Ekiga), a spreedsheet application (Gnumeric), a word processor (Abiword), an image editor (the GIMP), a movie player (Mplayer), a PDF viewer, ... The OS is built from Linux (from scratch), runs kernel 2.6.17.11 and takes less than 100 MB (less than 168 with applications). It will feature 3 different GUIs: for novices ("Easy"), for medium users ("Ergo") and for advanced users (GTK-based with an OS X-style dock, so-called "Expert" mode). A parental control mode will be available, as well as different security features (firewall, antispam, etc). Usage will be restricted by Neuf so that people won't be able to install applications (or viruses!). On the hardware side, it will feature an Intel Celeron M 600Mhz, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of Flash memory and no hard drive. There will be 6 USB and 5 ethernet ports, and acting as a NAT router, it will share the connection with WiFi-enabled devices too. The modular design of the NeufGate will allow future hardware extensions (harddrives? DVR features?). The box will be rented (cost included in the monthly fees): the operating system will be automatically updated and most problems will be remotely fixed (some of them without having to call the hotline, as the box will report errors; it will be remotely controlled by Neuf technicians on demand [you will have to accept, as they won't be able to access anything other than your NAT/router settings otherwise]; and no, you won't be root ;)); in case of hardware problems, the box will be replaced within 48 hours (hotline will be free). A 2-hours online tutorial will help new users understand the basics. Of course, it comes with the current Neuf "triple play" offer: 8 Mb/s ADSL (down, 1Mb/s up), Telephony (mostly free, at least to landlines in most Western countries) and IPTV (to be available early 2007). All the software used in the NeufGate will be available as F/OSS on their community website [easyneuf.org] soon. Oh, and the price? 39.90euros/mo, everything included (except the peripherals, ie monitor/mice/webcam which will be sold separately; you can use your own). More pretty pictures here [pcinpact.com] (still, still in French). Now, isn't that what we can call Linux Desktop for Aunt Tillie? :)

Btw, it will be sold through retail stores.

Re:I Hope...

[boule75]

Errr... This is apparently a "real" PC as you say, with AbiWord, Gimp, a spreadsheet, and some other apps. And a browser & mailer certainly!

Nice or original features:
- the hot line apparently plan to seize control of the PC whenever one has an issue. Just like in any company indeed, just with much more logs.
- they will not accept whatever hardware : they sell or rent some. I hope they will contribute to the drivers.

Licensing & privacy issues are to be looked after.

Some more information in French:
http://www.easyneuf.fr/flash/ (the official launch date is October the 15th)
http://www.silicon.fr/articles/16846/Neuf-Cegetel- lance-EasyGate-un-croisement-entre-une-box-ADSL-et -un-PC.html
https://linuxfr.org/2006/09/22/21362.html

By the way, have you heard recently that Free.fr was to invest 1.0 Bn Euro in the next years to provide ultra-high bandwidth access in big French cities (i.e. 50 Mbit/s by optical fibers, possibly with symetric data-rates, for 30 Euros a month with triple pay)?

Maybe will I finaly lend a core to the CERN for free...

Beyond HD-TV, I wonder if very high speed Internet access, multi-core personnal PCs and virtualisation technologies (not sure for this one) will allow us to share our CPUs and our disks. What would you think?

And since this is now a many-stupid thoughts in one late post, let me put some more in it:
- this reminds me of a ThinkGeek T-Shirt claiming "will work for bandwith": all you now need is 30 € a month...
- I will be happy when Linus comes back to Europe. I do not even believe he thinks about it, but let's dream. Linus? 50 Mb/s nearly for free, both ways, with free phone to the US and half of the Free World? We've got good Belgian or Irish or German beers too, come on, come back!!!!