For those of you who remember the Commodore 64/128 fondly, you may either celebrate the return of a PC compatbile version of the Commodore computer, or recognize the new Commodore computers as defacing the Commodore name. With that said, a company has licensed the Commodore name and is selling PCs shoehorned into a keyboard type chasis. Simply add mouse and monitor and you have an all-in-one PC similiar to the original Commodore form factor. Excluding the nostalgia, I can see a few practical applications for these PCs including PC based kiosks, point of sale (POS) systems, and situations where desktop or workspace room is minimal. And the prices aren't too bad either, particularly for the more powerful versions that are similar to the performance of a traditional desktop machine. With that said, in the age of the "netbook", you can find many of those for around $300 and they're considerably more portable and less expensive.
But the awesome factor comes in when you consider what operating system to put on these little babies. Of course there's FreeDOS when combined with Breadbox Ensemble and you'd have a great, compact little DOS based PC. Ubuntu and Windows are also options. And of course you could add any number of emulators (Commodore, Apple II, PC, DOSBox, etc.) to the system and really blow your friends and family away with a "new" Commodore that can run "old" Commodore apps through emulation. In fact they even mention these options on their site.
I fear for the company though, not too many independents have been able to survive the competition from the Dells, HPs and Lenovas, and this form factor isn't original, you'll find several different PC-in-a-keyboard manufacturers advertising online and at the back of PC magazines, not to mention the competition from netbooks and the benefits of portability.
Regardless, give them a look. There might be something there that piques your interest! And Breadbox, you may want to get in touch with these guys too and get FreeDOS/Breadbox Ensemble up as one of the OS options they advertise on their OS page as well!
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