Easynine answer to Windows
p2pnet.net news:- If you’re someone who wants a computer but doesn’t want a computer, think Easyneuf. If you’re in France, that is.
Minitel is the French government-sponsored box wired into 14 million French homes at its peak in the mid-1990s, as the International Herald Tribune sums it up.
Minitel, coupled with difficulties first-time computer users have in dealing with Windows, inspired Easyneuf (Easynine), says the story.
With that in mind, French ISP Neuf Cegetel has taken the Minitel idea, “to develop a computer based on a similar low-cost model, aimed at people who are unable or unwilling to buy a computer”.
And even better (or worse, if you’re Bill Gates) it runs on Linux, with a graphic overlay designed by Neuf.
“We wanted to create something as simple and cheap as the Minitel to reach technophobes and people without much money,” the IHT has Frédéric Charrier, manager of the Easy Neuf project, saying.
The story goes on:
“For €39.90, or $53.30 – a €10 premium over the price of most broadband subscriptions in France – customers get a white computer roughly the size and shape of a toaster. A one-time payment of €29 buys a keyboard, mouse and camera; for €99 more, the customer can get a 14-inch color monitor.”
Nearly 80% of all current customer calls, “relate to problems with Microsoft Windows,” the story quotes Charrier as saying.
“We decided it was easier to build our own platform to limit potential problems.”
And the decision to use Linux, has been hailed by April, an advocacy group for free and open-source software,” says the IHT,l adding:
“This is the first time that a company offers open-source software in a mass consumption product that has a help desk to assist customers,” said Benjamin Drieu, treasurer of April, who also works for a company involved in the Neuf project.
“Normally, only programmers have the confidence to use open source, so this could change the perception of free software.”
The suite of open-source software on the Easy Neuf includes the Firefox browser, Abiword word processor and the Gnumeric spreadsheet program.
“The built-in memory is a fairly limited 512-kilobyte flash disk, but the device is compatible with external hard drives and a range of peripherals like printers, Internet phone headsets and digital cameras,” says the post.
Also See:
International Herald Tribune – France caters to market for the most simple of computers, April 2, 2006
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