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America Online is offering a PC, monitor and color printer for $299 to subscribers who sign up for its Internet service for one year, the latest effort by the company to prop up its subscriber base.

Read more: CNet News.

Thats quite the deal, crappy PC or not.

That's a crappy deal, period.

Most people do not need such a powerfull PC in the first place.

1.7GHZ, 256mb Ram & 40GB HDD is enough to surf, work on StarOffice, listen to Music by a long shot.

Not gaming, but that's not what this system is for.

That is hilarious, I can't believe that AOL is doing this. Do they really think that this will change their crappy service??

I use a 1 GHz 256 DDR 120 G system for all, including gaming & video edition. Sometimes a little bit slow, ok, but works fine !

The deal is as crappy as the company itself ....

It's not such a bad deal IMO. After all you get a complete system ( wiht monitor & printer ) for 300$. The only downside is the one year subscription to AOL but I guess nothing is perfect.

a year of torment and pain: $300 + $9.95*12 is not bad price, but $39.95/mo. for broadband!?. I'm glad I said 'Goodbye' to the service (free trials) forever, and hello to broadband. For $395 you can get a nice dell system with a printer, pda, or digital camera. And get comcast or something, ~20/month. that's 240 for yer monitor, if you were to buy the $300 + 1yr. aol broadband.

You people are ALL missing the entire point. For a good deal of people, AOL is very much EXACTLY what they want and need. People who know nothing about the Internet or computers, it makes it easy for them to go online. That computer deal is right in their ballpark as well. Most of these people only want to surf the web, email, maybe chat with friends and family. No need to have a fast PC for that.
The problems start when those people decide they need more than AOL can give them. At this point, the smart consumer switches services, the rest hang out in IRC channels annoying those of us with real ISPs

Dear lord, the end is coming. How many people are going to be sucked in to this deal. Granted AOL is good for some people i agree... and well, if someone is gonna go the AOL route anyway, might as well get a nice pc to go along with it. what doesn't make sense is, if it's a $300 pc and a year of AOL costs, what, $26 * 12 = $312 then how are they making money? or are they simply anticipating continued subscription after the one year...
oh and by harassing people after the leave. quitting AOL is one of the hardest things to do. sheesh, just try to find a phone number to be able to call and cancel. then once you do they keep you on the phone trying everything to convince you of the wonders of AOL. THEN, they call you a few times a week trying to get you back... it's harder than quitting the post office (for you seinfield fans) or the bank (or friends fans).

Well the one nice thing is that you can simply say NO, and then be done with it. It is just the same as a credit card. They won't let you quit that without a hastle. Just tell them NO, and when they call you back ask them to take you off the list. By law they are obligated to do so.