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"gewg_" writes:

from the the-good-they-die-young dept.

FOSS Force reports [fossforce.com]

Phoenix-based Symple PC, which offered refurbished "web workstations" running Ubuntu for $89, has evidently ridden off into the night of no return. Since at least August 24, the company's website [symplepc.com] has said the product is "No Longer [Available]", although the website remains operational. Numerous attempts to contact the company for clarification have gone unanswered.

The venture was the brainchild of Jason Spisak, whose history with Linux and FOSS goes back to being the co-founder and marketing director [of] Lycoris, which made news in 2003 when Walmart offered the Linux distro preinstalled on $199 PCs.

[...]The Symple PCs sought to be more than merely refurbished discarded desktops with fresh installations of Linux. Because they where built using a variety of used components, the specs on individual machines varied, but all met a minimum requirement of at least 2 GB RAM, 80 GB SATA hard drive or larger, and a 2.8 GHz P4 processor or faster. They came enclosed in a new case built entirely of recycled materials, were "rigorously" bench tested to find faulty components, and were covered by a one year full replacement warranty. Although the company was targeting SMBs, they also offered to ship single units to consumers.

Evidently, the testing wasn't rigorous enough, as the product seemed to be plagued with dependability issues from the start. Almost immediately after we published our first article on the desktops, we began to hear stories from consumers about Symple PCs that died after only a couple of days use. However, the company stood behind [its] warranty and immediately shipped replacement units.

Spisak also showed that his heart was in the right place. In early May, after learning from one of Ken Starks' columns on FOSS Force that Starks' nonprofit Reglue had lost a major supplier [fossforce.com] of used computers because he wouldn't transition from using Linux boxes to Microsoft Surface Pro or Windows, Spisak [pledged]

[...]my company would like to match that $1000 donation in Symple PCs to make up for any shortfall Ken is experiencing from them this year

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