From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 18 19:49:31 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 26CB41065673 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:49:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jalmberg@identry.com) Received: from mx1.identry.com (on.identry.com [66.111.0.194]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B427E8FC14 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:49:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jalmberg@identry.com) Received: (qmail 80160 invoked by uid 89); 18 Jun 2009 19:49:53 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.110?) (jalmberg@75.127.142.66) by mx1.identry.com with ESMTPA; 18 Jun 2009 19:49:53 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v753.1) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <94A1EEFE-A341-41C8-A63E-4F9EC1C75670@identry.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: John Almberg Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:49:26 -0400 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.753.1) Subject: Compact Freebsd 'appliance' X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:49:31 -0000 I have a client who has an application that he wants to deploy in his customer's offices as a headless 'appliance'. Basically, just a black box that you can plug into a Lan, turn it on, and it runs. No floppy disk or CD, no monitor/keyboard, just remotely managed. This application won't store any critical data, so it doesn't need redundancy. It just needs to be reasonably reliable, compact, and quiet. My first recommendation was to use a Mac Mini, but that excellent bit of hardware was deemed 'not professional enough'. So now I am looking for a compact pc that can run FreeBSD, of course. I think it probably just needs a power supply, tiny motherboard with onboard ethernet, usb, etc., and hard drive. If anyone has a recommendation (or if their are any vendors lurking), please shoot me an email off list. I'll compile a list of recommendations and post it all at once, in case anyone else is interested in this. Thanks: John -- jalmberg at identry dot com