Anatomy Of A uClinux-Powered VPN Gadget

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com technical editor Jerry Epplin takes a look at SnapGear's award-winning uClinux-based VPN appliances from the perspective of a developer's ability to customize them -- and in the process, becomes a uClinux convert. 'uClinux is probably the most exciting development in embedded Linux today, and perhaps in the larger Linux world as well. If, like me, you were skeptical of uClinux because the idea of redesigning a desktop operating system to work in the most deeply embedded devices just seems wrong, you really need to take a look at the project now,' says Epplin."

Comments

Re:Since when

[Single GNU Theory]

That's a pretty small pigeonhole to say that *nix is just a server OS. To say that Linux, for example, is a server OS or desktop OS is to impose artificial limits on what it can do.

In a server, you probably want a highly reliable, stable operating system to run services on. On a desktop, why wouldn't I also want something that stable and reliable to run apps on?

Linux is capable of running network services *and* playing games, browsing the web, and reading e-mail. So is Windows, actually, but it's more due to marketing and default tuning and included software that makes the difference between Windows ' Pro and Advanced Server editions.

Have you ever installed Windows 2000 Advanced Server? If you watch the install, one of the drivers it loads is for the Toshiba Libretto floppy drive. It's either a sign that MS considers the Libretto to be server hardware or that there's not as much difference between the various Windows 2000 editions as MS would like you to think.

At any rate, I think what the original comment was meant to mean was that he was pleasantly surprised to see Linux scale down to work well on embedded devices (which would normally mean using an OS designed from the ground up to be embeddable), rather than to pigeonhole it as merely a "desktop" OS.

what this is

[Anonymous Coward]

VPN means Virtual Private Network. A VPN is when
you use encryption to send your private network
data over the public Internet, typically from one
business location to another. For example, a VPN
lets your French development office use ClearCase
servers located in your Mexican headquarters.

A VPN gadget handles the above. It would likely
also act as a router, firewall, or NAT box.

uClinux is a chopped-down Linux that can run on
a processor without a MMU. The original 68000
is an example of such a processor. These
processors are often cheap, small, and with
low power consumption.

Where are the cheap boxes?

[bill_mcgonigle]

I'm looking for a $200 embedded linux platform that has a couple NIC's, some bootable ROM, and a firewire connector on it. I expect it to have the low-horsepower, low-memory features this thing has - all I need to be able to do is blowfish at 10Mbps. But this one costs $499!

At the moment I'm actively developing a linux-based network appliance. I'm currently buying a mini-PC with USB, 1394, audio, video, NIC, PCI slot, a Celeron, 256MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive for secure boot media, and a hard drive for data cacheing (important for my application). All for less than this box sells for - paying retail prices.

It seems to me a tightly-integrated solution ought to be much cheaper than the box of parts approach. Am I dreaming?