On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:05 AM, corey clingo <clinge...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 4:06 PM, Dewey Hylton <dewey.hyl...@gmail.com> wrote: >> if you feel this is a tired and worn-out question, then please just move > along. >> >> two systems on which i'm happily running openbsd on are: >> alix and mac mini. alix for firewalls/thin clients, and the mac mini can > handle pretty much anything i throw at it. both are relatively cheap (new alix > and used minis) and function well. in addition to firewalls/thin clients, my > needs do not include anything high-performance or high-bandwidth - mostly > infrastructure services such as dns/dhcp/web for small companies. >> >> so what i'm looking for is something small like (or smaller than) these two > systems, and just as stable, while being cheaper. and i'm looking for > recommendations, not just suggestions - if you haven't tried it and loved it, > don't bother mentioning it. >> >> i'm hoping the raspberrypi will eventually be supported on openbsd (if the > hardware proves to be stable, $35 sounds GREAT) but i don't have the skills to > go there myself. >> > > Alixes are pretty cheap. Not Sheevaplug or RasberryPi cheap, but cheap > for the capabilities they have. I mean, at the end of the day, your > clients are relying on these devices for potentially business-critical > services. How much do they really want to skimp?
Not only that, some Sheevaplug implementations don't dissipate heat very well, to the point where some external components are very hot to the point of burning your fingers. And this was from one of the ethernet ports - I'd hate to think what it'd do to the RJ45 connector over time. > > Personally I've lately been moving upmarket with this kind of device. > You get better performance (e.g., faster CPUs, Intel GbE rather than > Via, etc.), a more solid build, and I've never had to solder my own > surface mount caps on > one to fix a clock oscillator issue as I did with my home Soekris once > :) Oh absolutely, you definitely get your money's worth in IT, for better or for worse. > > All that said, one day when I retire and want to stretch my brain to > keep from getting senile, I'll probably try to port OpenBSD to a > couple of embedded-ish devices I currently use. The hardware is > generally decent from the outside, but I can't help but believe they'd > be better, faster, and more secure with OpenBSD than the iffy > Linux+vendor "enhancements" that they typically come with. > > Corey > That's on my bucket list - get at least somewhat proficient at kernel hacking, so I have something productive and brain-testing to do when I retire. -- Aaron Mason - Programmer, open source addict I've taken my software vows - for beta or for worse
