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Axentra Rumba Server - Home Do-It-All Box
JigSaw writes "OSNews has an exclusive article on a new Linux-based server appliance product -- the first in the family -- the Axentra Rumba Server. The product is to be launched soon, but details of it have being leaked out already: The device has a mini ITX mobo, VIA C3 800 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB hdd, USB 1.1, 2 LAN ports and in 1 WAN port (extra Wi-Fi USB device required). The device is useful as an Internet Gateway (DNS, IP filtering, Port forwarding, NAT firewall), as a network service (web server, file server, WebDAV, IMAP/SMTP, Samba, Content/Spam Filtering, photo album). It has an embedded web server so you can administer it via your web browser. It is compatible with Linux, Macs and Windows."
I am curios to see just how popular such a device is. I am not sure who the exact target would be. Anyone highly skilled or professional level could just build and setup their own with more stuff at a cheaper price. Those who don't have much computer skills will never hear of or have any need for this device. I guess if it is cheap enough so that someone would rather buy it then take the time to build one themselves, it could do well. My personal opinion is that it won't be priced low enough. They will sell a few, but not a ton.
Most linux/*bsd buff can build one of these on any given sunday. But it is great to see a consumer oriented device targetted at home (mainly windows) users that offers what was once only available to geeks to the mass market... well I for one hope it takes off anyway.
This seems like it could be a good stepping stone for more advanced Windows users to discover Linux. As long as the price isn't too much greater than what it would cost to build you own, I could see this creating it's own little market.
vampirical
It is very similar in idea to the cube but, as the article says, the cube was too expensive to really atract home users - and we can only hope that this box isn't. Although whether a home user really wants this kind of thing is another question
Wel according to the article the machine offers nothing to make configuring the firewall (IP Filtering + NAT) easy or foolproof.
So what do we got? Not much more than cheapo walmart pc and distro.
We got a linux based firewall running on the same machine as the files and photos and everything else.
What the hell is the difference between this and any other linux machine?
It certainly won't make security or sysadmin any easier.
It's a home linux nightmare waiting to happen. Can't wait.
Well, it's from the HomeBase guys, OEOne, so they are keeping the same target market. I do like the "Best viewed with Mozilla" at the bottom, though.
Put identity in the browser.
Not only was it too expensive, it was too early. Linux was little known with home users back then and ADSL and cable was a lot less common so it didn't really take of. Apart from that, there is market for all-in-one routers/firewall/* for SOHO-use nowadays and since this box is basicly that with a few extras, it'll have a lot easier time than the Cube.
0x or or snor perron?!
But very few build whole computers from scratch. They don't view it as worth their effort. They would rather buy an off-the-shelf system, and maybe add a little memory. A year down the road put in a bigger hard drive...
My point, the vast majority of technically literate people DON'T build their own from scratch.
Ahh yes... I have one of those... My trusty Sun Cobalt Qube. I run three domains with it over my cable modem...The cpu utilization has never been over like 20% for any extended period. It is quite the little workhorse, at only 450 mhz...
I fail to see how 850mhz is anything but overkill for an linux appliance doing the tasks specified. Then again, when I tell people the qube is only a 450, they get this...look on their face. Like they either don't believe me, or don't believe something that runs at ONLY 450 mhz can possibly get the job done. Perhaps going with a faster processor is simply for ease of marketing?
Who did what now?
I work with a bunch of embedded applications developers, and I know of only one other guy who builds his own machine. First off, they view their time as valuable. Every minute they can spend with their families is worth it, and building a machine can be time consuming. Pricing out parts, and getting up to date knowledge can take a lot of research. Second, as people get older, it seems they just don't want to mess with it. This is synonymous to old cars. Young people will tend to buy cars and restore them, while many older people will prefer to buy the car already restored. It costs more money, but they don't have to mess with it. Finally, with computers, when you buy legal software, I don't think you save any money when building your own, and most people want the warranties and one source of support that come with someone like Dell.
-- the computer doesn't want any beer, no matter how much you think it does. NEVER, EVER feed your computer beer.
Mod parent up (I have no points right now).
I set up a Xandros box and (stupidly) left it exposed to the outside world without shutting down all of the default services. It being Debian based, and hence having apt, I kept the software up to date with all the patches from security.debian.org. Not good enough. About a week later someone came in through a service (which was not part of the standard Debian distro) meant for system administration that had the port open to * (as opposed to 127.0.0.1).
The lesson is that easy to use distros with lots of things to make it easy on the end user (like WebDAV) are all well and good behind a firewall, or as a sacrificial box in the DMZ, but should not themselves be the firewall. It would be possible to create a firewall in a box that would keep itself up to date, but with all the bells and whistles on this thing, it's going to be as dangerous as Windows.
Microsoft would have a fair point if they said this, "if you want a lot of open ports and friendly services for easy system interop, and you don't know how or don't want to invest the time to secure your machine, and you don't keep the software up to date, it will be compromised." The same is true of Linux.
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