Linux Product Insider - CherryPal 'Green' PC
This week's "Linux Product Insider" features the CherryPal C100 PC, DragonflyBSD 2.0, SansDigital’s MobileNAS MN4L+, Mandriva and Precedent Technologies’ TechSurfer PC and Joey Lott et al.’s Adobe AIR in Action
Here is this week's Linux product news:
CherryPal C100 Computer
Who says you can’t have your pie and eat it too? The new CherryPal C100 computer is compact, svelte and will perform your computing with 98% less energy than a standard desktop PC – only 2 Watts. CherryPal Inc. says that its new creation has no moving parts, contains 80% few components, is highly secure, and runs a customized version of Debian. No maintenance is required since most information is processed and stored offsite in the so-called CherryPalCloud. The CherryPal also offers a new single software layer technology, which collapses the operating system and browser into one layer. The single layer makes the CherryPal exponentially faster, says its maker, and virtually eliminates the risk of bugs or viruses for the user. The CherryPal has a Freescale’s MPC5121e mobileGT processor, 256 MB of DDR2 DRAM and a 4 GB NAND Flash-based solid state drive.
DragonflyBSD 2.0
BSD now has more biodiversity with the recent release of DragonflyBSD 2.0. DragonflyBSD is a fork of FreeBSD 4.8. The project developers state that “DragonFly gives the BSD base an opportunity to grow in an entirely different direction from the one taken in the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD series.” Key advancements in the new Version 2.0 include the new HAMMER filesystem, live-CD functionality, tons of new drivers, and more. The DragonflyBSD Wiki also contains a chart comparing it with Linux.
SansDigital’s MobileNAS MN4L+
The latest product news in network-attached storage is the release of Sans Digital’s MobileNAS MN4L+, a compact network-attached storage server with home and enterprise features that can also be used as direct attached storage via iSCSI support. The device is a 4-bay NAS/DAS in a tower configuration that utilizes an Intel Pentium M CPU and 512 MB of DDR-2 memory. It further supports hot-swap with RAID 1, 0, 5 & 6, is expandable and is designed with USB 2.0/eSATA/Firewire 400 expansion ports and iSCSI initiator and target support for the connection to other similar storage devices. The increased processing power allows enterprise-level features such as snapshot with scheduling and real-time NAS-to-NAS folder replication. The MobileNAS MN4L+ supports networks for Linux, Mac OS and Windows.
Mandriva and Precedent Technologies’ TechSurfer PC
Deals like this – preinstalled PCs - are the key to Linux’s success on the desktop. Pushing this idea forward are the French distro maker Mandriva and American Precedent Technologies and their forthcoming TechSurfer Linux PC. The TechSurfer will be a low-cost, Atom-CPU-based PC for Web-centric computer users, those who mostly surf the Internet, download music, utilize VoIP services and the like. While the Mandriva Linux operating system is the default, Windows XP and Vista are also available on the PC. The TechSurfer will be released in the U.S. market in September, 2008.
Joey Lott et al.’s Adobe AIR in Action (Manning)
Leveraging the hubbub surrounding Adobe AIR, Manning has just released a new book Adobe AIR in Action to show how to build solid AIR-driven desktop applications. The authorial team consists of Joey Lott, Kathryn Rotondo, Sam Ahn and Ashley Atkins. In the book, readers learn the essentials of the AIR API with examples and code samples for getting up and running in AIR quickly. The book shows how to create and customize native windows, as well as how to read and write files and folders on the local file system. Other topics include desktop and hybrid desktop/Web application styles, instructions for Flex and Flash developers, setting up and connecting to a local database, detecting network connectivity and connecting to Web services, bridging ActionScript and JavaScript, and deploying and updating applications.
To send feedback on this article, or to send product news, please contact Products Editor, James Gray at jgray@linuxjournal.com.
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