Dell's Dimension E510n, Micro/sys SBC1670, QCD Microsystems' Interstructures Product and more.
Tired of shelling out those hidden Microsoft license fees bundled into the name-brand desktops you buy, only to blow away XP and install Linux instead? Dell's Dimension E510n ships with an absolutely blank hard drive and no pesky tribute to Redmond, Washington in the price. Systems start at $849 US, which will nab you a Pentium 4 630, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, an ATI RADEON X300SE graphics card and an 80GB SATA drive, all in a mini-tower design that Dell claims reduces noise. According to a Dell representative, Linux users will see a savings of $30–$50 US per unit over equivalent systems packages with XP Home.
Micro/sys wants to bring Linux into the point-of-sale arena. To that end, they've released the SBC1670, a single-board computer with an integrated flat-panel display interface. The 520MHz ARM processor is coupled with an 800x600 LCD interface, 10/100baseT Ethernet, five serial ports, CompactFlash slot and a keyboard interface. Compatible with the PC/104 standard, it's ready to take its place in cash registers across the world.
Administering a Samba Primary Domain Controller (PDC) can tax the skills of even a seasoned Linux sysadmin. QCD Microsystems has added PDC management to their Interstructures product, allowing them to be created using a GUI-based interface. According to QCD, users with no previous Samba training will be able to set up a new PDC within minutes. The Interstructures product already provides a graphical front end for tasks such as DNS, DHCP, firewall and Sendmail configuration.
Continuing the industry trend of 64-bit virtualization support, SWsoft has added Opteron and Intel Extended Memory 64 support to their Virtuozzo product, both in host and guest modes. Virtuozzo creates what SWsoft calls Virtual Private Servers, allowing a single machine to host many virtual servers, each with its own IP addresses and securely separated from the other sites being hosted. SWsoft claims near-zero overhead for their software.
Safedesk Solutions has released the 2.0 version of their Enterprise Server, which offers both Linux-based and Microsoft-based solutions to the thin-client environment. Based on SUSE Linux, it provides both a desktop and remote software execution to thin-client users, as well as access to the same environment through a Web browser from anywhere in the world.