Exactly my point and before you even get there, you pay Ł300 + for the laptop. A little bit like paying the SIM-free price for a phone and still buying into the full cost of the contract with the network. I applaud their effort but if they're going to copy the mobile networks' business model, then copy it - get the laptop for free (or heavily discounted) and put everything into the support services. I still like the basic concept but it seems they're trying to recoup too much of their initial costs right from the start which makes me think they haven't much of a reserve as it is. And like Sean mentioned, what if they go out of business? It's not like the demographic they're aiming at would be able to simply install their own OS of choice. <div class="gmail_quote">On 19 February 2010 11:27, Joe O'Dell <<a href="mailto:joseph.odell@googlemail.com">joseph.odell@googlemail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im">> > Unfortunate use of the word "expensive" here. I assume they mean > expansive with an 'a'. > > Bruno </div>No, im not sure they do. It's ~Ł40 a month for the service, which I think is ridiculous. Especially as broadband is Ł15 a month. Hmm... we shall see how this goes.. <div class="im"> Regards, ------------------------------------------------------- Joe O'Dell Fedora Contributor (FreeMedia) <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ascenseur" target="_blank">http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ascenseur</a> bedsLUG Co-Ordinator <a href="http://bedslug.co.cc" target="_blank">bedslug.co.cc</a> DFEY Member (SouthEast) <a href="http://dfey.org" target="_blank">dfey.org</a> Ubuntu-UK Group Member (ascenseur) <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JoeODell" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JoeODell</a> </div><div class="im">On 19 Feb 2010, at 10:59, Bruno Girin wrote: > On Fri, 2010-02-19 at 10:10 +0000, Johnathon Tinsley wrote: >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: SHA1 >> >> Anyone seen this? Looks interesting.. >> >> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8522952.stm" target="_blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8522952.stm</a> > > Very interesting indeed. It's a shame that the article looks a bit > clobbered together in 5 minutes and contains some very confusing > sentences: > > >> As well as communication tools such as e-mail, Alex comes loaded with >> a suite of open office software including a Microsoft version of Excel >> and read-only PowerPoint. > > Er... does it means that it comes with MS Excel or with an alternative > (such as Open Office)? Because I'm at a loss as to what "a Microsoft > version of Excel" is as I wasn't aware of any other version of Excel :-) > > >> Alex is trying to do three things: win new people over to the >> internet, introduce a new - and more expensive - way of using >> computers, and take on the might of Microsoft > > > > </div><div><div></div><div class="h5">> -- > <a href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</a> > <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</a> > <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/</a> -- <a href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</a> <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/</a> </div></div></blockquote></div>