Physical design

Half of the Zonbu Desktop's innovation is in the hardware. It's based on a VIA C7 ULV processor running at 1.2GHz with 512 MB of hardwired RAM (not upgradeable). Local storage is not a hard drive (though there is an internal laptop formfactor IDE port), but a 4 GB Compact Flash card. That's mainly for the operating system and software, and some settings and user data and such. Most other data is stored online through the Amazon S3 storage service. The way Zonbu has Amazon S3 configured, you have 50 GB of storage space (quite a lot, even for hardcore desktop users), and offers an upgrade to unlimited storage for more money.

The onboard graphics chip -- a VIA CX700M2 UniChrome PRO II -- is surprisingly capable considering the limitations of the formfactor. The maximum resolution is 2048 x 1536 at 16 million colors and 75 Hz, which is beyond the capability of most ordinary desktop monitors. I only tested it at 1280x1024, where I was able to play simple hardware-accelerated games like Chromium BSU and Blobwars without interfering with the 3D desktop capabilities built into the graphical environment.

The rest of the peripheral components are unremarkable. One thing I will say is that you won't wont for ports -- there are six USB 2.0 ports (one of them on the front of the device), and audio in/out jacks for speakers and a microphone. You can use either USB or PS/2 keyboards and mice.

There's not much to see inside the machine. You can disassemble it partway, but to get to the CPU and other exciting parts of the Zonbu Desktop requires a highly involved disassembly that most people should not attempt. Interestingly, the CPU is fanless, and uses the ribbed aluminum chassis as a giant heatsink -- it's even got heatsink compound between the CPU and the chassis, and that side of the case is not removable so you can't accidentally disturb the CPU's thermal transfer. You can easily attach a laptop formfactor hard drive to the socket on the topmost PCB, but you'll need a cable, which is hard to come by in that formfactor. There is also a jumper to enable the hard drive controller. Realistically you wouldn't want to add a hard drive to this machine -- it might generate enough heat to cause a software crash, and would consume significantly more electricity.

The Zonbu Desktop is tiny -- 4.875" x 2.175" x 6.675", which is roughly the size of an internal desktop CD-ROM drive. It's not heavy, either -- it weighs only 2.1 pounds. Part of this small size and weight is accomplished by abstracting the power supply to an external 20w "wall wart" DC power converter. The machine is designed to stand with the long end vertical, though it can reasonably be positioned in a number of ways. The thin metal stand that comes with the Zonbu is not attached to the computer, so you can orient it in whatever way you wish.

Zonbu guarantees the hardware for three years as long as you keep your subscription up-to-date. If it breaks, a new one is drop-shipped (meaning they do an advance replacement, where you have to send the old one back after you get the new one) to you for free. If you choose to forgo the subscription plan, you can purchase a static three-year warranty for $80.

Supported software

Software support is a difficult subject to address with the Zonbu machine. It comes with the Zonbu OS, a Gentoo Linux derivative with a huge level of customization and desktop user friendliness. Unfortunately, the default Zonbu OS configuration does not allow for any interaction with Gentoo's excellent software tools. You don't even get root access by default -- you have to go through an involved process to get root access, then install a package that upgrades your system to the Developer Edition, which allows you to use Portage and other Gentoo tools.

There is no way to add software to the system without installing the aforementioned Developer Edition package. Once that's done, you can add any program from Gentoo's Portage system, which is among the largest bodies of Linux application software in the world. You don't have a lot of storage space to play with, though -- only about 260MB in the root directory -- so you're limited in what you can install.

In terms of installed software, all of the basics are included with Zonbu OS:

• OpenOffice.org 2.2.1
• Firefox 2.0.0.4 (with the Content Filter and Firefox Showcase extensions)
• Evolution 2.8.2.1
• Banshee 0.12.1
• Acrobat Reader 7.0.08
• GnuCash 2.0.1
• GIMP 2.2
• Scribus 1.3.3.3
• Nvu 1.0
• Skype 1.4
• Azureus 2.5.0.4
• aMule 2.1.3
• Gaim 2.0.0
• Xfburn 0.2.0

The version numbers of the above programs were current as of this writing, but they will upgrade over time. Aside from some standard GNOME applications, a few standard Linux games, and other small utilities, the above list is it -- that's all you get. There are not multiple programs in each category like in most desktop Linux distributions; you get one Web browser, one office suite, one email application, etc., so there is no room for confusion. What I like about the way Zonbu implements this approach is that the developers have chosen all of the programs that I would have gone with if I were forced to have only one program from each class of software. Too frequently I see Linux distributions that make default software choices that do not involve best-in-class programs. Someone at Zonbu decided to include the best open source and free-of-charge proprietary software in this distro, a departure from other KDE-oriented desktop distributions that focus on using the terrible programs that come with the full KDE package for the defaults.

The Zonbu Desktop on the inside

If you don't want to pay the monthly subscription fee, you lose the ability to access online storage, so your local storage will be limited to around 3GB. That's not a lot, considering the size of many media files and the sheer volume of personal data that people tend to accrue over time. No other features are disabled by switching the software over to the free edition.

Putting it to the test

The first machine I got was a beta test unit, and it would overheat after about 30 minutes, which resulted in a hard lock. Since the Zonbu relies on network storage for files, and the local storage is an SD card, there is little or no possibility of data loss during a lockup or crash. It's pretty annoying to be limited to a 30-minute work schedule, though. A Zonbu engineer told me that the problem was related to the kind of SD card used in the beta machines, and replaced the entire computer with a production model shortly before the Zonbu Desktop's release some months ago.

My experience with the production machine has been nothing but positive. I'm truly amazed -- shocked -- at the engineering of this entire device. It's small, silent, and the software environment is perfectly designed for the hardware. There are none of the usual desktop Linux hassles because the hardware has already been accounted for. There are more than enough ports for reasonable expansion, storage is scalable because it's all done through Amazon S3 (which I use anyway to back up my workstation and server data), and there are options to access your data remotely. When I found out about that option, I was immediately compelled to try out the Zonbu laptop machine to see if I could really have one copy of all of my data, secure on redundant remote servers, and use it just as easily at home as I could on the road or at the coffee shop. I didn't request the laptop machine, but I trust that it works as intended, from a low-power laptop frame of reference.

Because all of the permanent storage is on a flash disk and a network drive, the Zonbu's limited processing power is masked by the fast data I/O. The most noticeable performance bottleneck in desktop computers is data throughput. The faster your storage mechanism can store and retrieve data, the faster the computer is when loading programs or doing anything with files. Network storage isn't always speedy, but flash cards certainly are. The only performance issues I ran into with the Zonbu Desktop were when I was trying to compile a program from the command line -- it dragged down the entire system. Aside from that, I could run OpenOffice.org with a large document, have several tabs open in Firefox, run a few Konqueror windows, and play a game without any noticeable loss in performance.

The Zonbu Desktop next to its metal stand

As expected, the power consumption on this mini-PC is amazing. Average power consumption was around 10 watts, with a maximum draw of 13w under reasonably heavy load. This works out to between 6 and 7 kilowatt hours per month, assuming the machine is on all day every day. That amounts to constant-use operating costs of less than a dollar per month, depending on your cost per kilowatt hour of electricity. That doesn't include your monitor, which is likely in the vicinity of 20-30 Kw hours for an LCD screen, and twice that for a CRT. 6 Kw hours per month is an unbelievable level of power consumption for a desktop computer -- even laptop computers consume significantly more electricity than the Zonbu Desktop. Even the Zonbu Notebook uses more electricity than that -- around 15w. When you consider the level of desktop capability that this machine has, the power consumption numbers are even more amazing.

Conclusions and developer recommendations

It's not that it is impossible to build a cool mini-PC, or share data among machines, or remotely mount a home directory over NFS. And it's not that you can't customize a Linux distribution to be a perfect, streamlined desktop that requires little thought and effort to configure, update, and use -- you can indeed do these things, though they are all time-consuming and fraught with hassles -- it's that the Zonbu offers them in one, solid, predictable, low-power, low-cost, low-noise, small footprint package.

In finishing this review after a long period of testing, my thoughts keep drifting toward the convenience of having a commodity device that, in itself, does not have a great deal of personal value. If I were to lose my workstation, it would be devastating to me -- I would have to spend hundreds of dollars building a new machine, and hours installing and configuring my operating system and restoring backed up files. If I used a Zonbu as my workstation, if it died or was stolen or destroyed, all I'd have to do is overnight another one for $100 plus shipping, and I'd be immediately back in business. In fact I could even buy a spare in case of hardware loss or failure. And if I got the laptop too, I could share the same secure, redundant network storage that I have on my workstation at home, assuming I have reliable and inexpensive access to an Internet connection wherever I bring my laptop.

I'm so impressed by the Zonbu that I'm tempted to ditch my Linux workstation and totally switch over to it. It's a revolution in desktop computing roughly equivalent to the advent of desktop Linux itself. It opens new doors to hardware, software, and storage possibilities that were previously closed by vendor lock-in from hardware manufacturers and software companies that offered nothing but hugely expensive, power-inefficient, problem-prone solutions.

Gaming is not a possibility with the Zonbu, and it's hard to get any new music onto it unless you buy an external CD-ROM or exclusively download your songs. It's not practical to install new software on it, either, so unless its current desktop application stack is agreeable to you, this isn't the device for you. Broadband Internet access is a requirement to get the most out of this device. Other than these qualifications and circumstances, the Zonbu is the perfect desktop computer for just about anyone.

Despite the many advantages of the Zonbu, I'm concerned that it might not catch on among consumers. We're all already paying so many monthly fees -- cell phone, television, necessary utilities, games, Internet, insurance on various things -- that it's become impossible to justify any others. Americans are drowning in monthly plans. Even though it may be cheaper in the short term and the long run to go with Zonbu over something less secure, less capable, and less reliable like a traditional desktop computer from Dell or some other manufacturer, old buying habits die hard. I don't think Zonbu is competently communicating the value of its service. I do hope it catches on, because it's a great idea that will eliminate the majority of problems that people have with desktop computing.

There isn't much I can criticize about this device and service. Here are some suggestions, however small they may seem:

• Offer different themes. The default desktop theme is okay -- it's certainly not boring, but I might like to have a few other choices.
• Include KDict. I heavily rely on the built-in dictionary in KDE and GNOME. In KDE, the panel applet that integrates word lookup functionality is KDict. It's a very small addition to the base system that would make a huge difference to a lot of people. I tried to add it via Portage, but the compile crashed with a segmentation fault.

Device	Small formfactor desktop computer (mini-PC)
Manufacturer	Zonbu
Device support	Audio in/out, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, six USB 2.0 ports (one on the front, five in back), one 10/100 Ethernet, optional 802.11b/g wireless (not included in the standard configuration). Internal support for a 2.5" laptop hard drive. Can support a large number of peripheral devices.
Market	Light-duty desktop users, people new to desktop computing
Price (retail)	U.S. $100 with a $15 monthly subscription to the Zonbu online service for two years, or $300 with a non-contract monthly subscription plan, add $30 for wireless connectivity (Buy it now from Zonbu.com)
Previous version	N/A
Product Web site	Click here