Webserver Mk I (Asus Eee PC)

I spotted and inspected this solid-state dinky little toy (not to be confused with a Dinky Toy, of course) with its 800MHz Intel Celeron and 512MB of RAM (and a 2GB solid state disk drive) back in mid-February 2008, and caved in to temptation a couple of weeks later.

Of course, beyond proving I could use it to access files on my Apache webserver over in Texas, I actually made almost no use of it at all as both the screen and the keyboard were just a bit too small for my liking. It came loaded with Xandros, which was a tiny Linux desktop designed to mimic the look and feel of Windows XP. Indeed, you could even squeeze a genuine XP onto it with enough patience.

However, beyond lending it to a couple of chums for extended periods of time, it did a lot of dust collecting.

Not any more!

Like me (somewhat) it's now enjoying a second childhood running Ubuntu Server edition 10.4 and hooked up to a ridiculously physically small 1TB USB hard drive. Not only is it doing all the web page serving internally here in Technology Towers, it's also simultaneously running a Firefly music server (that was for the Roku Soundbridge network music player in the upstairs reading room, though it's now relocated to Brian's house to assist with his Internet Radio listening), an Ampache music streamer for any desktop PC hereabouts that wants to access my library of MP3 music files, and a Gallery application that I shall slowly populate with my photos and other digital artwork.

All this in a silent PC that rarely exceeds 20% CPU and doesn't seem to feel the need to do any paging. Of course, it's not a fast machine, but it's certainly now earning its keep.