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The <$100 Linux Box
Th=
e decTOP avaialble for $88 each (including shipping, in lots of four) ma=
kes a great little Linux box. The decTOP from D=
ata Evolution Corporation The decTOP comes with (almost) everything shown here.
The decTOP
Universal(100-2=
40Vac) input 12Vdc adapter.
USB Mouse
USB Keyboard
USB to Ethernet=
adapter
All necessary c=
ables, power cord, Ethernet, phone, and USB extension
*LCD monitor no=
t included*
Right sid=
e has power switch/LED, two USB ports, and audio jacks
Left sid=
e has modem jack, two USB ports, VGA, and power jacks
Close up=
of the included USB to Ethernet adapter
W=
hats inside? Being mo=
re of a hardware guy I opened mine before I even powered it up once! The=
decTOP was a pain in the ass to open. There are six plastic clips, thre=
e per side, under the blue rubber edging. These have to be lifted and t=
he top pried up a bit to get it to open.
You can =
see the interior metal frame and stock 10GB hard drive mounted on top.In=
teresting to note the stock hard drive has a Windows CE 5.0 serial numbe=
r sticker on it. Now this leads me to believe that if I could find the i=
nstallation disks for Windows CE 5.0. I would be able to legally install=
it using this serial number...
Under th=
e hard drive is the one and only system board. You can see the Geode CPU=
under the SODIMM.
Better v=
iew of what's inside.
I instal=
led an old 40GB Western Digital hard drive and replaced the 128MB SODIMM=
with a 512MB one while I was in there.
I=
nstalling Ubuntu Linux Installi=
ng Ubuntu Linux was pretty straight forward using Jonathan Scott's ins=
tructions.
decTOP b=
oot screen.
Ubuntu i=
nstaller
Literall=
y HOURS later I got to boot Ubuntu for the first time.
SUCCESS!=
Overall =
this is a nice little unit, maybe a little slow for a full-blown Linux d=
esktop, but certainly usable. I have an old laptop that is a Celeron 433=
/128MB RAM that runs Xbuntu and the decTOP running full Ubuntu is only s=
lightly slower, except program load times are notably slow compared to t=
he Celeron laptop. The decTOP is certainly fast enough (and silent excep=
t for HDD) to be a printer, FTP, DNS, mail, file, torrent, or whatever s=
erver for the average household, or even an Internet kiosk or point of s=
ale terminal for a small business. Since it does run from 12VDC (and onl=
y draws about 8 Watts) with a low power monitor it could be a nice car, =
boat, or camper computer, the possibilities are endless
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