Zonbu Cloud-Assisted Computing Anybody using it?

[HappinessNow]

Long before Ubuntu jumped on the Cloud Computing bandwagon Zonbu well established themselves as the forefront leaders of cloud-assisting computing, has anybody tried or is anybody currently using Zonbu?

http://www.zonbu.com/home/index.htm

[Skripka]

Who in their right mind would pay $15/month for linux? That is absurd....all matters of cloud computing aside.

[HappinessNow]

Who in their right mind would pay $15/month for linux? That is absurd....all matters of cloud computing aside.
Zonbu the OS is FREE!

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=110707&d=1240488486 (http://www.zonbu.com/getitnow/download.htm)

http://www.zonbu.com/images/button2_m.png (http://s3.amazonaws.com/Zonbu/2008-05.1445/zonbu.iso)
Try Zonbu. Free download!
Welcome to the world of Zonbu. Here you can download and burn a Live DVD, allowing you to run Zonbu Open Source Edition without modifying your operating system. You may also choose to install Zonbu – feel free (just back up your local data first).



http://www.zonbu.com/images/st_update.png (http://s3.amazonaws.com/Zonbu/2008-05.1445/zonbu.iso)Download (http://s3.amazonaws.com/Zonbu/2008-05.1445/zonbu.iso)
Zonbu OS here (http://s3.amazonaws.com/Zonbu/2008-05.1445/zonbu.iso)

Version: 2008-05
build 1445
1903 MB
Wed, June 25, 2008


Installation steps:

Check the file integrity: md5sum DVD (http://build.zonbu.com/build/2008-05.1445/zonbu.iso.md5sum).
Burn the ISO image to DVD.
Zonbu recommends quality DVD+-R media burned at low speed.
Place burnt media in your DVD drive and turn on your computer.
For help, please review the FAQs at right.



Use rsync if you have already downloaded the image: rsync rsync://build.zonbu.com/zonbu/build/2008-05.1445/zonbu.iso /to/path/zonbu.iso -av --progress is also available.
http://www.zonbu.com/images/vmware.png
VMware version
You may choose to run Zonbu via VMware Workstation or VMware Player. Simply download the zonbu vmware zip file (http://build.zonbu.com/build/2008-05.1445/zonbu_vmware.zip) and extract this archive to your computer. Then, download one of the iso images to the same folder where you have extracted the zip file. Note that if you download the DVD image, you need also to rename it to zonbu.iso.

[Skripka]

Zonbu the OS is FREE!

Ummmm.. not if you ant any of the useful "hybrid" "cloud" features they advertise-it isn't.

http://www.zonbu.com/pricing/

[HappinessNow]

Ummmm.. not if you ant any of the useful "hybrid" "cloud" features they advertise-it isn't.

http://www.zonbu.com/pricing/bottom line the Zonbu OS is free, the cloud computing features are not, I don't think anybody will host Cloud computing for free.

[ZankerH]

First the africans, now the chinese? What is it with every culture making their own linux distros? Linux is supposed to be about the FOSS community, not "my culture is better than yours".

[HappinessNow]

First the africans, now the chinese? What is it with every culture making their own linux distros? Linux is supposed to be about the FOSS community, not "my culture is better than yours".

Practically, every country in the world has a version or quite a few versions of Linux distros this has nothing to do with culture or cultures, Linux transcends such simplification and unites a world wide community.

What Zonbu has done, is it has made a refined Linux distro that successfully utilizes cloud-assisted computing and has made this into a marketable and fully usable product, this is what Ubuntu is trying to replicate.


The Zonbu OS is a customized version of Linux (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux) based on the Gentoo distribution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux) using the Xfce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfce) desktop environment. It is geared towards non-technical users, and the user interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface) focuses more on simplicity than advanced features.
The filesystem architecture combines a transparent overlay filesystem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnionFS) (pioneered by Linux Live Distributions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Distro)) with an on-line backup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_backup_service) service. User data is locally cached on Compact Flash Card, then transparently encrypted with 128-bit encryption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_size) and transferred to remote storage servers at Amazon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_S3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zonbu

btw where do you get that Zonbu is a chinese company?

Zonbu

Headquarters Palo Alto, California, USAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zonbu

[gnomeuser]

I own the Zonbu computer, however the USB DVD drive they sold me doesn't read the Zonbu DVD image, and since I nuke the original install I can't get it installed.

It is a very nice OS, for the time it was developed it is polished and features all the things your mother would need to do. It's not a quick machine but it works rather well and it is dead silent.

[HappinessNow]

I own the Zonbu computer, however the USB DVD drive they sold me doesn't read the Zonbu DVD image, and since I nuke the original install I can't get it installed.

It is a very nice OS, for the time it was developed it is polished and features all the things your mother would need to do. It's not a quick machine but it works rather well and it is dead silent.

Interesting feedback, so it sounds like a good system in need of some improvement, perhaps Ubuntu can pick up on this?

I did notice that it appears that Zonbu is in need of an update.

[gnomeuser]

Interesting feedback, so it sounds like a good system in need of some improvement, perhaps Ubuntu can pick up on this?

I did notice that it appears that Zonbu is in need of an update.

It's one of those early baby steps into the realm of using the cloud for every day tasks. Something we see more and more as netbooks expand their market and software catches up.

Today if I was getting something like the Zonbu I would wait for the ARM powered nettops. Just as silent but with more power and they use Ubuntu meaning I can draw on a wider community to improve the OS. One of the problems with Zonbu is that it is done by a few guys as a custom Gentoo install, it's a lot of work since they do not really attempt to roll anything back upstream and engage people to expand the effort. As such there has not been an update in ages.

I knew they were in trouble, at a point I was offered money to do QA work on the OS and hardware. Despite filing many issues, they would redefine the bugs severity to avoid paying the high premium. Additionally for the many hours I put into this I have yet to see a dime, primarily because the terms were that I reach a certain critial mass before a pay out. Each bug depending on severity would be worth a certain amount but with the redefining of severity everytime to bump a problem down in the payment tier it meant I never reached the threshold.

In the end I put the Zonbu aside and started considering what to do with it. In the end I think it might become an Ubuntu box with the netbook remix, something I can have sitting around for nephews and nieces to play with so my main machine is safe.

[HappinessNow]

It's one of those early baby steps into the realm of using the cloud for every day tasks. Something we see more and more as netbooks expand their market and software catches up.

Today if I was getting something like the Zonbu I would wait for the ARM powered nettops. Just as silent but with more power and they use Ubuntu meaning I can draw on a wider community to improve the OS. One of the problems with Zonbu is that it is done by a few guys as a custom Gentoo install, it's a lot of work since they do not really attempt to roll anything back upstream and engage people to expand the effort. As such there has not been an update in ages.

I knew they were in trouble, at a point I was offered money to do QA work on the OS and hardware. Despite filing many issues, they would redefine the bugs severity to avoid paying the high premium. Additionally for the many hours I put into this I have yet to see a dime, primarily because the terms were that I reach a certain critial mass before a pay out. Each bug depending on severity would be worth a certain amount but with the redefining of severity everytime to bump a problem down in the payment tier it meant I never reached the threshold.

In the end I put the Zonbu aside and started considering what to do with it. In the end I think it might become an Ubuntu box with the netbook remix, something I can have sitting around for nephews and nieces to play with so my main machine is safe.

It sounds like a good concept that can greatly benefit from the community of users of Ubuntu as well as the funding of Canonical to perhaps become a successful reality.

It is nice that some serious groundwork has been laid.

[forrestcupp]

It sounds like a good concept that can greatly benefit from the community of users of Ubuntu as well as the funding of Canonical to perhaps become a successful reality.

It is nice that some serious groundwork has been laid.

It sounds to me like a scheme to get good free help.

[HappinessNow]

It sounds to me like a scheme to get good free help.

Ubuntu and it's projects always rely on good free help, it is what keeps the quantum of community healthy and viable within Ubuntu and the greater Linux/Open Source world at large :)