No it IS NOT. Please stop saying that

The machine does not come with ANY OS, as is normal with any barebone machine. There isn't even a drive in it, so it's impossible to deliver with an OS

The specs are not hard to find at all, they are on www.shuttle.com:

http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/K45.html

I'm not even sure where you found that it comes with Linux, as all the sites I checked (including big ones like newegg.com) list it as the barebone it is.


As for XP or Vista; anyone who'll dabble in building a barebone will usually have a license of either lying around. It's not for the amateur, but for about $150 for the machine, a gig of memory, a decent CPU and a basic drive, it's a great deal for a very low power consuming machine.

Also; $200-$400 for XP or Vista is only for people who don't know where to find deals

Even the worst of deals out there will get you a Vista license for under $90, but smart shoppers can find Vista Ultimate for under $70 if they look hard enough.

Ah, I see what you did; you googled it, and found some of the pre-configured versions of this machine, but that was not what was on sale at Fry's... Shuttle has those listed here:

http://us.shuttle.com/kpc/index.htm

Okay, I'll take your word for it. The specs that I printed above were cut-and-paste from one of the retailers.

Most of the ones that I saw described it as "bare bones" but provided no specs at all.

That's very true, but someone who is asking, "what do I need to run a MagicJack?" probably won't know where to look.

Also, I'll admit to holding a major bias for thin clients. I started with one t5720 to run the MagicJack. Now I'm up to four, and I'm constantly watching eBay for deals. These things are fun!

Ah, okay. You're right, I'm wrong -- I concede. I thought it odd, though, that Frys, which is usually pretty good about providing specs, had nothing on this machine.

After much thought I brought my mj and a small phone to Berlin and guess what it was easy to use! I even tried the phone in my hotel with success. Staying at a US based hotel chain. Just using the hotel wi fi and using the phone and voila, I am talking back home! ^

Weve had magicjack for also about 6 mo's.
In fact at first we thought it was great so we bought 2! The reality is, the technology is severely lacking. If you run into a glitch they will only have a chat line to help you. I have personally spent 16 total hours on chat trying to reset the mj# that suddenly quit working. Unly because I was in Europe and they disconnected me from my family.
Then I had another magicjack sent to me and suprise suprise, the same thing happened mysteriously quit working!
Another 2 full days on chat, for the same reason to no avail!
Save yourselves countless hours online trying to repair a product that they will not repair no matter how hard you devote yoursellf to it.
Nice idea, but just save yourself the grief and the money, do yourself a favor, there are far more reliable means of comunication, and far less frustrating, trust us on this.

Thing is, I've had mine for ages, and it has been 100% rock solid. There are always going to be bad experiences with any product, but my personal experience has been nothing short of fantastic with Magicjack.

That's been my experience, as well. I've been running three -- one on my laptop for travel, one at home and one at the office, and they've all been great. Particularly useful has been the one on my laptop. There's a nice hack available that lets you run the softphone without the physical magicJack. I just plug in a small headphone and can make calls on my laptop anywhere in the world.

How would you contrast this with making a Skype-Out call from your laptop?

I've tried Skype, though I haven't used it in a couple of years. They're both softphones, though, of course, you have to pay for Skype by the minute if you're dialing to a telephone.

The magicJack interface is far more "phone like" than Skype, has a hold button (and there's music on a hold), voice mail (automatically forwarded to email), etc.

The magicJack audio quality is, IMHO, far superior to Skype. With Skype I had continual problems with delays, echoes, etc. MagicJack sounds better than my landline phone.

On the other hand, though the magicJack interface is simpler, getting it to work well takes a little bit of work. For example, performance improves with the TJ echo canceling software, which takes some ingenuity to find. QOS settings, both for the local computer and the LAN make a big difference. I've found using a hardware-based QOS prioritizer helps, as well. Finally, magicJack support is just terrible -- imagine the worst of an Indian help desk confined to internet chat.

That is what I am trying to figure out. I have Skype on everything basically and use it a lot. I use it for conference calls on a USB speakerphone almost daily. Likewise I use it for most of my calls from my office from either the speaker or a handset and at home from my notebook and when traveling from the same. I also just use the built in speaker and microphone on my Mac notebooks and it works fine. I dont notice any quality issues 90% of the time, and when I do, I call back. I have a Skype Pro account so it is $3 a month and I have unlimited calls.

Is there any advantage of Magic Jack over Skype? Thanks.

It's a matter of personal opinion, I think.

MagicJack will do everything you've described, though there is a specific hack to use MagicJack as a softphone without having to have the dongle. However, if you don't mind plugging in the dongle, you don't have to bother with the hack. It works fine with the built-in microphone and speaker of laptops (which, I think, includes Macs).

The cost is probably comparable.

I find the quality of the MJ to be superior to Skype, and also find I have fewer problems. With everything tuned up nicely, 99.9% of my calls are problem free.

MJ offers one primary advantage over Skype: you can use it with any landline phone. My MJ at home is connected to a standard DECT 6.0 wireless landline phone (from AT&T). This lets me use it anywhere in the house on the four extensions. It supports Caller ID. You can use MJ with any kind of traditional phone hardware-- you don't need a USB phone, etc.

I've heard differing reports on the ability to use the MJ to send faxes. I haven't tried it yet.

I once ran the numbers and Magicjack is slightly cheaper on a yearly basis than Skype. After the first year it become MUCH cheaper than Skype (if you have Skype In and the Skype pro subscription).

I'm convinced that a lot of the reports about MJ being bad are posted by the competition, including some of the brand new users in this thread. Even on my blog I see folks from all over the world (mainly eastern Europe) claiming they have MJ and warning people how "bad" it is.

I own one as a travel tool, not as my main line. I generally like it, but I have some complaints about call forwarding to Canada. I have a Canadian mobile and leave my Magic Jack parked to call forwarding to Canada when it is not in use. It pulls a fast busy half the time.

Does this analysis include the cost of power? Given your general interest in technology, my assumption is that you probably HAD a PC already turned on inside your house 24 X 7 X 365, before buying the MJ. But I don't. My interest is in eliminating my home phone line, but if I have to keep a PC turned on all the time, that must be part of the math.

No, it doesn't include the cost of a PC 24/7, but to be honest, I never calculated the cost of MJ for a real landline replacement, the way I see it, it's more a replacement for Skype or a Vonage softphone for travelers. As much as I like MJ, I don't think I'd ever replace my home VOIP service with it.

I've found t far better than Vonage, Lingo and Skype, all of which I have used and dumped in the past.