The thing is they were like $100 or $200 at best buy when you signed up for an ISP service contract that you could easily get out of. of course they sold like hot cakes once it was found you could mod them and install Linux or Windows. The power came from the fact that you could put them where a normal PC wouldn't work (like the kitchen). If you had a home lan, everything was saved on the network. and if you had DSL or Cable, Internet was a breeze. In later models, they tried to make them hack prof which just made it all the more a frenzy to hack them and thus void the Warrenty! :-)