An organization that offered free PCs to individuals who promised to use them at least 10 hours per month. The PCs were sponsored by advertisers, and the ads were visible at all times. More than 30,000 units were shipped in the summer of 1999 to qualified applicants. Free-PC was created by idealab!, founded by Bill Gross in 1996 and which launched more than 20 Internet businesses in its first two years of operation. In 1999, Free-PC stopped offering free machines and merged with eMachines (www.emachines.com). In 2004, Gateway acquired eMachines.