What are you doing with your Zonbu?

by **Chad** on Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:27 pm

This is a question for past and current Zonbu users, (not that there are many "past" Zonbu users - just didn't want to leave anyone out).

What do you do on your Zonbu? What do you use it for?

Like, is it a second computer in the Den just to jump online real fast when someone is on the main computer? Do you watch movies on it? Is it your podcast client? Do you use it for work - like to write reports or anything? Do you do design work on it? Do you have it at your business, school, or civic group? Is it for the kids to do homework on? Are you just a gadget geek like me and had to have one more blinking box to play with?

Imagine Zonbu was a verb. How do you "Zonbu"? What does it mean to "Zonbu"? Surf the web, check email, listen to internet radio - blog, chat, and write - game, hack, and code? When you "Zonbu" what does it look like?

Just thought it would be neat to get some "Real world" answers to that. I don't work for Zonbu, so this isn't a survey or a start to some marketing campaign, (although they might end up using it for that). I'm just curious. We get so many "Can we use the Zonbu for X?" questions - it would be good to know what people are actually doing with it.

Also, in your answers, if you are using a notebook, please note that, just because that does make a difference. Of course, if you say something like "I use it to get last minute work done on the train" - I'll pretty much assume you've got the notebook.

by **maniac** on Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:34 pm

Chad wrote:What do you do on your Zonbu? What do you use it for?

Let's see - I have had a laptop for about a month now and done the following:

Did some initial testing to determine if it was "mom" friendly (mom is over 80, has used WebTV almost from the beginning & was looking for a new computer). Mom did end up purchasing another laptop - details below.
Did some testing of remote access to systems at work / reporting problems (mainly because our IT staff is so "windows only" focused).
Help manage my photo library (over 5 Gbyte - several thousand pictures).
Took on vacation as my main system - quite successfully once I had a work around to the WiFi problem.
Browsing at home / at airport / other locations.
Enabled the developer version / built some applications (I do have some professional interest in Linux).
Reported several problems / worked with the Zonbu staff to collect information to help resolve them.
Help walk mom through new (to her) features & resolve problems.

Side note - I am an extremely experienced computer user - having set up / managed computers (including Linux) for over 30 years.

I'll add a few notes on what Mom has used her system for:

Getting email - her ISP is Qwest & I walked her through the process to use the web interface to get email out of "Windows Live" (way too complicated - I may have to walk her through setting up POP via Evolution - I can't see how to use IMAP with that service).
Some web browsing - to aid her, I added some items to the Bookmark toolbar (email, news - a few RSS feeds, road conditions, website for a club she belongs to).

She has plans to use it for:

Photo management
Viewing some online content (video podcasts)
Use while traveling, hotels, etc.

The basic set up is pretty good for mom, but compared to WebTV, this is a MUCH more complicated system and is not quite as easy to use as I would like to see for her. Also, some of the defaults are not helpful for a user with less than perfect vision (e.g., can't enlarge the cursor, text too small). Also, for her use, even less choice would be MUCH better. Any suggestions on how to do that would be appreciated.

by **bobphillips** on Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:52 pm

Bought the Zonbu to see if I could replace our Windows computer to do all my 'home computing' stuff.

And found that I could, by and large, do that (after a few bugs were sorted and I had worked out how it functions), so I surf, email, edit small documents, manage my music and photos, and recently rescued the old windows computer via Knoppix off this Zonbu Mini. I even took the laptop to a conference to present off - and ended up putting the USB key in and transferring the presentation, as it was too complicated to do anything else.

But my wife is a different matter (no, not that she has bugs, and I can't work out how she functions, no ...) The fact that it works differently, looks odd when you open Word ("Writer" "You see, it's even called something stupid. Now how can I change to landscape, it's not even got page setup" "It has, dearest, under Format>Page" "Bloody stupid American computer"), the laptop one doesn't automatically connect to the WiFi at home ("Why?" "Its a bug dear, they're fixing it." "Well you shouldn't pay for things that don't work") and it has an American keyboard (see above for comment).

So for me, hoping to save a few pennies and give the kids a few more years before the sea level rises 5m, it's a winner. But for others, it's still too far from Windows to be usable.

Now, I had used a bit of linux before - I'd put Xubuntu onto an old Sony laptop and done what I now think of as zonbu-ing with it - but it was old and dying frequently, so I moved up. (It was also a bugger to back up, so I didn't.) But I was, and still am, slightly scared of the terminal (despite the fact that when I know what I'm doing, it's hugely quicker) and wouldn't rebuild my kernel in a million years. (I don't actually know what my kernel is, but rebuilding it sounds dangerous.) A 'power user' perhaps, rather than a true geek.

by **Rigas** on Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:50 am

Hi,

this topic already existed:

https://www.zonbu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=169

Rigas

by **Chad** on Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:03 pm

thanks for the link, Rigas. And reading those responses was enlightening. However, that topic hasn't been replied to since September, and a lot has changed since then.

Zonbu is out of beta

Zonbu Notebook is here

Numerous updates, additions, bugfixes to the OS and software

Changes to pricing and storage options

Wifi for the desktop has come and gone
So, what people are using the Zonbu for today is possibly different than it was 4 or 5 months ago. Plus, there are new / different people using it now.

And if it turns out to be exactly the same thing as it was back then, despite all the changes, that will be interesting to learn, too.

by **andmalc** on Wed Jan 16, 2008 5:35 pm

Because it is low power and silent, I use mine as a music player, especially for Internet radio. It is a living-room-compatible device.

If I could hook up a remote control (see elpraga's & my requests) it would work even better for media playback. For example, I could control Mplayer playback of my Yoga/exercise videos which I often want to pause but am a few meters away, or change the radio station while sitting on the couch.

Something I'm not doing with my Zonbu is worrying about backups.

by **JeanScotch** on Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:35 pm

I've choosen the zonbu because his processor is at speed 1000+MHz, it's RAM is 512 MB, it's silent, it's green.

I use it to control the videoprojector in my main room. A screen as wide as the wall

I would like to be able to connect it to my pulseaudio network to hear the sound of movie with my running sound system. The DVD being put inside my desktop in another room and accesses trough lan.

For the rest I'm very happy with it's initial configuration (in both opensource mode and developper modes). With wireless keyboard and mouse, it's the perfect guest computer in the main room.

all the best!

by **jpwiegand** on Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:31 pm

I am a recent convert to open source. I started with buying an Apple iBook and installing NeoOffice and havent looked back. I have installed ubuntu on a partition on our old Dell laptop and love it.

In our house, we have three laptops (2 Apples and a Dell Windows XP) and a wireless print server and a Linksys wireless router. I bought the Zonbu Mini to replace our dying Dell XP Desktop and to learn more about open source systems. DELIGHTED with it. After numerous bugs or misunderstandings which have all been fixed or figured out by me or by suppport, all the computers mount eachother, including the ubuntu partition of the Dell, over the network. That's important because of all the kids here, middle and high school, doing homework - they are never sure which computer they'll be on. The Zonbu is primarily used by my wife for email and composing documents. I am using the Zonbu now for picture storage (replacing my laptop) and for backup of our music library. The kids are using it now quite alot for homework - documents and presentations - and web-based research and surfing. Everyone seems to have gotten very used to it. I have been impressed with Zonbu support in keeping up and dealing with issues as they arise. The Banshee problem has yet to be fixed though. Will probably install the developer edition soon to add one or two programs - a musical score editor/printer and google earth.

by **ron_conaway** on Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:43 pm

I purchased my first HiDef flatscreen for my living room. Wall mounted and fully articulating. Nice! I wanted to be able to have a pc experience on this tv. Everything is wall mounted and compact including my Direct TV DVR and Upconvert DVD player so I didnt want a giant stupid looking pc sitting on the floor or having to run a vga cable between rooms, etc. Hence the Zonbu! It was a little quirky at first going through some bugs with different rev levels but it now is an awesome big screen experience. I am not a huge audiophile but I like being able to play my music (from multiple pc's and NAS devices on my wirless network), Sirius Radio, whatever; through my new system in the living room. Nice doing picture beside picture and watching a movie while chatting online or browsing for airfares, etc. I dont know about anyone else but I love my Zonbu and am having a great experience! Thanks guys!

by **preacha** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:26 pm

Chad wrote:This is a question for past and current Zonbu users, (not that there are many "past" Zonbu users - just didn't want to leave anyone out).

What do you do on your Zonbu? What do you use it for?

Great question Chad.

Chad wrote:Like, is it a second computer in the Den just to jump online real fast when someone is on the main computer? Do you watch movies on it? Is it your podcast client? Do you use it for work - like to write reports or anything? Do you do design work on it? Do you have it at your business, school, or civic group? Is it for the kids to do homework on? Are you just a gadget geek like me and had to have one more blinking box to play with?

I bought the laptop unit.... now wishing I hadn't.

It is my primary computer right now.... fixed my busted Windows laptop and gave it to my roommate.... and thought I would get a Zonbu mainly as a test to see what it was all about.

Like most people I was drawn in by the "Green" aspect of Zonbu, the price, and the supposed "hassle free computing" that their website states.

But, like you I am a geek and have to have more and more blinky toys to play with.

Chad wrote:Imagine Zonbu was a verb. How do you "Zonbu"? What does it mean to "Zonbu"? Surf the web, check email, listen to internet radio - blog, chat, and write - game, hack, and code? When you "Zonbu" what does it look like?

- Surf the web... especially since I spend a lot of time on the road I need a computer that goes where I go.
- Owning my own computer repair business I need to check my email constantly.
- I detest Internet Radio.... ALTHOUGH, XM is great to listen to.
- Blog yes, chat no.
- Games.... when I am bored.
- Hack.... not since 1984.
- Code.... I am presently tearing apart the Zonbu OS.... like I do with every Linux OS I get my hands on.

I got it mainly becuz of the DVD player.... BUT, to date I have only gotten 3 movies to play on it.

Chad wrote:IJust thought it would be neat to get some "Real world" answers to that. I don't work for Zonbu,

Maybe you should.... seems like they need professional help.

Chad wrote:Also, in your answers, if you are using a notebook, please note that, just because that does make a difference. Of course, if you say something like "I use it to get last minute work done on the train" - I'll pretty much assume you've got the notebook.

Never assume.... at least when dealing with Zonbu or "The Zonbu Team".

Having dealt with 7 people now from the company in 14 days they have no clue was to whether I have a laptop or a mini.... even though I have told them several times I have a laptop.... which can be confirmed by looking at their recent orders.

BUT, having tried several other "user friendly" Linux distros on this laptop I am sold on using Unbutu with it.... the great thing Unbutu is that you can now access Linspire's CNR (Click-n-Run) library of unlimited software.

2 of the best Linux OS that I have used over the past 12 years are Linspire (formerly Lindows) and Unbutu.

My friend Rob Savoye from Colorado was one of the founders of Cygnus which was the company that brought RedHat into existence.... so, I am a long time (20 years) Linux geek.

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