[Sussex] LINUX on Mini-ITX / Via?

[Geoff Teale]

Steve wrote:
------------
>  The only system I am aware of that does this is Sun's 
> Java WebStart.
> Otherwise one has to spend phone number type figures on the servers.

I see your point.  
 
> My argument that the standard x86 based PC system (lets 
> ignore the OS) is 
> cheaper because of the numbers that ship.  The mini-ITX made 
> be built on the
> same basic hardware components, but it doesn't sell 1/10th of 
> the numbers
> world-wide that Dell ship just in the UK.  I don't have the 
> figures but I
> think that guess is not going to be found to be wrong.

Well, Dell is a bad example because they don't manufacture machines for that
price point right now - but yes your argument stands - actually you can get
some larger form factor boards cheaper with slightly more powerful CPU's
(principly AMD Duron based systems running around the 1Ghz benchmark).  In
terms of numbers shipped though, do bear in mind that the current best
selling computer in the world (the walmart boxen) runs on the Via C3 chipset
on a slightly cheaper, larger motherboard (not the mini-ITX form factor, but
the same componenets from the same manufacturer).  Via are marketing for a
low price point (they original conception of the EPIA boards was not for
people to build mini-pc's but for set-top boxes and the like) you do pay a
premium for the size, but again, if you were to order a couple of hundred at
a time I'm sure there discount schemes are comparable.

Ultimately though the point of the discussion is not a comparison of
chipsets.  If you roll out a diskless Mini-ITX it's just the same as rolling
out a dell box without a disk - they're both PC's.

At thomson all our servers were diskless, they used fiber into the SAN and
every one had it's disk image stored in that Abyss - this seems like a waste
of storage space - surely if the kit is identical the we could share a lot
of the directories.  What about this.  Set up a file server, every machine
has an identical boot image that it loads from the file server: /boot /usr
/etc and so on are all identical for each machine, /home is a big shared
filestore (everyone has their own home directory NFS'd across),  swap /proc
/tmp and so on are on a local disk.  As an admin all you have to worry about
is the data on the server, and software installs can be done into the the
common image - would this work? 


-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org
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