I am looking to provision a small pc for use as a web console (for FOP, let's say). An Apple mini-MAC would be aboout the right size, but really too expensive. A mini-ITX board might do, but there are so many of them now and the VIA boards seem to have a reputation for poor quality.
Features needed: - silent (solid state components or ultra quiet fans/drives) - ability to handle a CF card as a boot drive (if an adaptor card is needed that's OK) - small footprint, and preferably styled conservatively - possibility to add full softphone capability later (although this would be something to do for the second version, console 1.0 should be a basic PC to start - adding speech paths will vastly increase the development effort). - anything else I have missed? - unit has to be new (i.e. no used Dells from a liquidator), and have a reasonably reliable supply chain Also, what OS to run? The console will only need to run a browser app, and perhaps an email client. A nice lightweight Linux might do, but is there such a thing as lightweight X? (that looks good and runs Firefox). If we can put our heads together and think this one through it'd benefit any of us who do enterprise work, because sooner or later you can be sure you're going to be asked to provision a pc to be dedicated as a console, and a huge, noisy PC is not going to be popular. It'd be cool to wiki the results as well, since this would benefit the community at large. Jim -- Jim Van Meggelen [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2177 "A child is the ultimate startup, and I have three. This makes me rich." Guy Kawasaki -- -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.5/303 - Release Date: 06/04/2006
