Open (and Linux) Wins The Home Again

I learned about this cool device reading Edd Dumbill's blog.

I've been astounded at the applications people have devised for this little box. Being fairly cheap makes it a great candidate for home automation projects. It's a great example of how limiting resources fosters innovation. Remember how games on 8-bit microcomputers were so much more ingenious than those on their more well-resourced successors?

The NSLU2 is another one of those Linux-based devices for the home and small businesses. They always seem to cost about $100 USD which makes them fairly easy to buy for people (at least me) running home networks already. Fry's has this one, which is just down the road a bit from my house.

I don't really *need* another network storage device, but this one has some really useful hacks, which Linksys acknowledges to be OK and not completely out of line.

Open (and Linux) wins again. Companies that find ways to leverage (and contribute to) common, open platforms appeal to me.

Companies that don't, don't. And so I was also pleased recently that my son chose a new MacBook Pro as his high school graduation present. Although he will be spending his own hard earned money to run Windows on Boot Camp for some games. His choice. I sure am envious of that laptop though. Nice choice!