Plug computers
D. Hugh Redelmeier
hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org
Mon Sep 27 17:53:41 UTC 2010
| From: Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
| On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 12:44 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
| > <http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_357&item_id=031468>
| > Currently $99.99 after $10 discount
|
| That's pretty interesting...
Well, the NCIX sale price is more interesting :-)
| I'd rather run a "general purpose" distribution (e.g. - Debian) than a
| specialized one, as that allows the same tooling to work for both
| "real servers" and this, as a "itty bitty server."
Yeah.
The first thing I would do with this thing is flash a different OS.
Since that is fiddly, I haven't yet done this (or anything else) with
the Dockstars I scooped up.
Unfortunately, desktop distros probably won't fit: they don't like
having so little RAM and they generally don't understand "headless".
There are several open distros for these plug computers, as I
understand it.
- debian, perhaps.
<http://www.plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/Debian>
- openwrt
<http://www.plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/Creating_a_OpenWRT_image_for_SheevaPlug>
- plugbox linux, a variant of Arch Linux(!)
<http://plugapps.com/index.php5?title=Portal:PlugBox_Linux>
(This page explicitly mentions to Pogoplug and DockStar)
- several more listed on plugcomputer.org's wiki. Some of the ports
seem to appear underdeveloped
The choices of plug computer seem to range from Dockstar ($30 from
Future Shop, if you can find it) to OpenRD client <http://www.open-rd.org/>
(US$240 and up, as far as I can make out). OpenRD is heads and
shoulders above the others, but the price is higher than I paid for my
Acer Revos which are quite a bit more capable.
| If I can use a conventional distribution, use etckeeper to backup
| configuration <http://joey.kitenet.net/code/etckeeper/>, and have a
| miniscule box (that burglars mightn't even realize was there! ;-)),
| and have some useful services running, that seems like a fine thing.
A close-enough-to-conventional distro looks possible but it might take
a fair bit of fiddling to get there.
The plugcomputer.org wiki looks like a marvelous resource.
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