[Ma-linux] Is this an instant server? What's the catch?

[Serge Wroclawski]

On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 12:39:00PM -0400, Theodore Ruegsegger wrote:

> These solutions seem to be focused on putting storage online. While I
> will certainly do that, I also need to serve applications, mainly
> Apache with a PostgreSQL back end. It's not immediately clear to me
> whether I can do that with these devices, but I'll keep reading.

Ted,

First, these devices use an ARM processor. You asked "Can I use any 
distro I want?" and the answer is "Sure, so long as your distro supports 
this architecture.", both in terms of the general platform and the 
specific hardware in the distro.

Next you asked "Can it run my apps?" and the answer to that is also 
"Yes, so long as your apps will run comfortably in an envionment 
constrained heavily by memory and CPU."

These devices are interesting embedded devices- they're beefier than, 
say a WRT45G, but they're quite similar in design. I've thought of a 
number of uses for them, personally, but I wouldn't rely on them to do 
any heavy processing.

- Serge