The I-Opener_1 system is a Netpliance I-Opener. It is a "network appliance" consisting of a 200 MHz WinChip CPU, 30MB RAM, 2MB VRAM, one USB interface, an internal serial port, parallel port, built in 56k modem, built in audio, an integrated color graphics card, and 10 inch LCD display (800x600x16). Designed to run a proprietary web browser and use a predefined ISP from the 16MB Sandisk (flash ROM); this system has been hacked. A "hack kit" IDE cable and mounting bracket (US$35), a 2GB IBM IDE laptop disk drive (US$54), a small fan (it's amazing what a couple drops of "Super Glue" and heatsink compound can do) to replace the massive heatsink, and a LinkSys 10/100 USB Ethernet interface (US$37) were added to the basic unit. It is currently running the Windows98 SE operating system from Microsoft. Use of Windows98 is only a proof of concept and it will be replaced as soon as possible (i.e., as quickly as one of the new distributions that support the USB can be obtained) by the more hardware frugal Linux operating system. As a simple client machine it has no fixed IP address and simply grabs a free IP from the local DHCP server. The next version (two I-Openers were obtained) will likely be diskless and involve only reflashing the Sandisk.

This system was acquired on or about 2000-03-12 after an article was posted on Slashdot about clever Linux experimenter, Ken Segler. The rest of the hacker (in the good sense of the word) community likewise made a run on the I-Opener and cleaned out Circuit City shelves in a matter of days. Circuit City planned to sell them for a "loss leader" price of US$99 and hoped to make money off the ISP service. Netpliance has since made numerous attempts to make the I-Opener "hack proof". While the hardware isn't bad, no comment can be made for the ISP service because it was never used.