Well it turns out that Tokelau is a small island nation located north of Samoa, in the middle of nowhere (literally). After Google mapping it, I couldn’t even zoom out enough to put it in relation to anything while still being visible. The place holds a population of less that 1,500, and boats a GDP of a whopping $1.5 million. In fact, the mere addition of gaining the .tk TLD boosted up their GDP by 10%. So what the hell is going on here?

The website states that, “Open Tech is proud to announce a desktop lineup that are fully capable of running many operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista, OS X Leopard, and Ubuntu 8.04. The Open Tech Computer and Open Tech XT are meant to be open, you can choose want you want it to run. Since the Open Tech Computer is fully customizable, you can customize the RAM, Hard-drive, and the video card.”

Upon review of Open Tech’s offerings, they are displaying two systems, the Open Tech Computer 1.0 and the Open Tech XT, which are going for $620 USD and $1200 USD respectively. Additionally there is a store that would appear as though you can purchase direct from the site, yet nothing is currently available.

Quite obviously Open Tech cannot be manufacturing or operating out of a place that is so far removed from anything that there is not even a capitol city. Upon even further research, .tk extensions have been notoriously connected to scams. Gee, did anyone actually think this was legit? I do not think that there should be a doubt in anyone’s mind that there is something fishy going on here.

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“Although the base price of the less-expensive OpenServ 1100 is $1,599, when tricked out with an unlimited-client version of Mac OS X 10.5 Server to better match the Xserve’s specifications, the price tag is $2,624.99, about 12.5% less than the $2,999 Apple charges.”

“The base OpenServ models feature a quad-core Intel Xeon processor that runs at 2.5GHz, 4GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive. The four drive bays of the 1100 and the six in the $1,999 2400 can be filled with up to 4TB or 6TB of disk storage space, respectively.”

“Apple’s stock Xserve comes with a quad-core 2.8GHz Xeon CPU, 2GB of memory and a relatively small 80GB drive. The 1U-format server sports three drive bays, which can hold up to 3TB of storage. ”

“We want to serve the entire market, not just the mainstream or niches, but everyone,” Christian Infante, director of sales and marketing for the Doral, Fla.-based company, said in a statement yesterday. “We want to offer a relevant product for every user, regardless of their needs.”

Thoughts: Overall, the OpenServ system is not that much cheaper than Xserve and seems to be far less convenient.  Additionally, where is the piece of mind? With Apple products you know what to expect and count on.  Psystar’s OpenServ is likely to be a cheaply made knock-off with a non-competititve price tag.

Article here.

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