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Same here, they do great serial console. The machine has no moving part, so it should be quite reliable over time. The weak point is the power supply, though: we replaced a lot of them

We use them with a tweaked NetBSD that boot from flash and uses a RAM disk as root

This is not ARM, but it is still non-x86 with completely Free software and firmware. RMS uses one, I'm personally waiting for the new quad-core version.

http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html
http://kd85.com/lemote.html

There is nothing inherently difficult about Linux on ARM. I have installed Gentoo on two such systems, a Buffalo Linkstation and a Nokia N800 (though the latter runs Maemo most of the time). These devices were designed for Linux to begin with.

IMHO, it is much better to support manufacturers that support Linux. Even if you get Linux running on one of these WinCE devices, you are supporting a closed monoculture by buying it.

As of netbooks, there are two currently available in online stores that I find particularly interesting: Always Innovating Touchbook (ARM) and Lemote Yeeloong (MIPS). Both of these are intended for open source hackers. The Lemote, in fact, is completely open source down to the firmware level. Both of these are considerably more powerful than the WinCE ARM netbooks.

The last time I mentioned these, some people complained that the Lemote is not actually available anywhere, so here are two places:

http://lemote.kd85.com/

http://www.tekmote.nl/epages/61504599.sf/nl_NL/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61504599/Categories/%22Lemote%20linux%20PC%20and%20Linux%20laptops%22

Where is the 150, 500g ARM netbook with an optimized OS running 12 hours without recharge???

I think this comes pretty close, and this is also quite interesting. Neither is close to 500 g, but at least you can buy one right now.

At least two European online stores sell them:

http://lemote.kd85.com/

http://www.tekmote.nl/epages/61504599.sf/nl_NL/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61504599/Categories/%22Lemote%20linux%20PC%20and%20Linux%20laptops%22

I don't like giving my bank details to anyone.

Why not? My bank details, involve my name, my bank account number and... That's it (BIC/SWIFT eventually for international trasactions). You do know what you can do with that information? Send ME money. That's it. At least, that's how it works in my part of Europe. If indeed, somewhere else you only need those information to withdraw money, I'd keep it close to my chest too.

Look at one of the guys who sells OpenBSD stuff in Europe: kd85.com. Scroll down to "Trivia". You'll find his address, his bank details (if you know how to read them, of course) and you surely find his full name on the website too. Do you really think he is at risk at any moment doing this? Nope... As said, the information is enough to give him money. There are many (european) sites who give you bank details like this.

Direct debit does involve that kind of data, BUT the main part of it is that you give them an authorization to withdraw money. In my country the company to which you give that authorization needs to send it to the bank to make it valid. Call the bank, annul the direct debit and the company is unable to withdraw. (Authorization method number two in the Wikipedia article. Why anyone would accept authorization number one is beyond me.)

Even Visa's database has been hacked over the years, so do you expect any old company to be able to protect your data?

VISA is not a bank account, and no, I don't expect them to protect that kind of data. However, as I said, only with my name and bank account, they're not going to get far. The authorization resides at the bank which I trust much more than the odd business.

At one point when the fraudsters were having trouble accessing my accounts via telephone banking, they somehow managed to find the name of my account manager and called the bank asking for her by name!

I understand that identity theft is a serious issue and I do understand laws and regulations are different in the US. (Much laxer... and the banking system is archaic.) I know, I'm going to give anecdotal evidence again, but I never met anyone at my side of the pond that was victim of identity theft. I Googled the issue, and found some interesting insights. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but point number three should give you a hint on how the fraudsters got the information.

One alternative for a 64-bit system with low power consumption is MIPS. For example the Lemote netbook that RMS uses has an 800 MHz MIPS64 called Loongson that consumes just a couple of watts maximum. I don't know much details, but apparently the CPU has proper floating point performance, unlike most ARM processors. While ARM systems do come with DSPs for media processing, MIPS could be more interesting for general computing.

A Lemote netbook using a MIPS-like processor and completely open firmware is available in Europe and probably ships to other countries too.

A serial console. As far as I know, this is what serial ports were actually put into computers for in the first place.

Sigh. I wish more people (the home user Slashdot types) would just go buy a serial cable (and/or serial+USB adapter) and see for themselves how trivial it is to set up, and how valuable that setup can be. There's plenty of reasons why one would *want* to rely on serial, aside from the usual "What if the network is down?" scenario.

For added fun (when there's more than one computer involved), consider something like this

The question about bios settings is a good one though, and I don't know.

For the OP and most of us, that's a noop. What I would have suggested instead of a powerhungry P4 (or even PIII), is a soekris box. There's no VGA at all, so the BIOS (and everything else) is accessible via serial only. My "headless" VIA boxes are a PIA by comparison.

Granted, Soekris boxes are typically used to perform networking functions, but setting one up with a hard drive (laptop or SSD ideally) and running a web, IMAP, NFS, Samba, etc. server is common enough and performance is perfectly adequate. A few bucks more, but hey, they're rackmountable so you can impress your friends and neighbours. :-)

I'm thinking about adding another 5501 in the same case for firewalling, routing and providing wireless for the rest of my network.

Power usage is minimal, it is *completely* silent (no fans) and it has been proven to be rock solid.

More info at Soekris or kd85.

Disclosure: I'm just a happy customer.

By way of comparison, the 1 GHz AMD Geode runs on about 1 watt of power, and ARM processors can get by for even less.

Great, but where do I get a AMD Geode and a motherboard for it? I'd love to have a silent PC (actually, server: I made the mistake of believing AMD's Cool 'n Quiet hype and it really isn't all that quiet... but enough ranting). I know about Soekris Engineering. The fastest they have is a 600MHz Geode. Probably more than enough for my needs, but they aren't exactly cheap. (I know why, volume, etc...) For the same price, I get a much faster CPU/motherboard comba that's much more performant. Of course, it isn't silent....

Better yet, if you know where to find them in Europe, I'm all ears. (I know where to get the Soekris ones http://www.kd85.com/)

Yes, that is to one thing one has to know. European orders are not shipped from canada, but dispatched by Wim in belgium. Take a look at https://www.kd85.com/

If you want people who use your software professionally to donate, there had better be a legal entity to donate to.

Pretty amazing that the software that gets "compromised" on Linux isn't the kernel at all in the vast majority of cases, but rather the supporting software...

This is *the same* supporting software that runs on OpenBSD (Oh my! Oh, the humanity!), and ships with it in the default 3.7 install.

Think of it from that perspective, and you'll realize that it's a pretty poor point to argue about. Roll that beautiful GPL (mostly) footage:
ftp://muk.kd85.com/pub/OpenBSD/3.7/packages/i386/

Wim Van de Putte's company, kd85 is what you're looking for. They are located in belgium

If you want to support OpenBSD in order, you can order it directly from http://books.kd85.com/
KD85.com does all the shipping for Europe (also resells Soekris hardware http://soekris.kd85.com)

If you want to support OpenBSD in order, you can order it directly from http://books.kd85.com/
KD85.com does all the shipping for Europe (also resells Soekris hardware http://soekris.kd85.com)

If you want to support OpenBSD in order, you can order it directly from http://books.kd85.com/
KD85.com does all the shipping for Europe (also resells Soekris hardware http://soekris.kd85.com)

The 486 machine mentioned in the article is a Soekris 4501