[LUNI] Linux equivalent for this?

[Martin Maney]

On Sat, Jan 06, 2007 at 07:04:16AM -0600, D. Wade wrote:
> My question to the community: are there any recommended distros or tools 
> expressly for the purpose of SOHO file server / workstation backup 
> system which offer redundancy and easy config, or does Windows win?   
> We've got a ton of ready-made firewall distros, what about this niche? 

File server has been pretty trivial for quite a while, and I know there
have been (and presumably still are) distros that target this. 

For backing up Windows boxes, I suspect commercial solutions (which may
use Linux under the hood of the applicance, or not) will win, since
making that painless requires at least a sizable component that runs on
the Windows boxes.  (obvious, no?)  Which isn't to say that there isn't
something near enough to what you're looking for out there, but I
wouldn't be shocked to learn that there wasn't, either.

To be honest, for the SOHO market, I expect these preassembled
appliances aren't really overpriced - in the sense that if the low-cost
alternative is putting pieces together (1), that itch just won't get
scratched at all.

(1) even for what might seem to you or I like a trivial amount of
assembly required.  Consider how tiny the percentage of computers are
sold as parts versus complete systems that need only to have a few
clearly labeled cables plugged in (2) and their startup EULA accepted
to work.

(2) and even that appears to support a small but real service market
for doing trivial system setup and maintenance.  The computer
equivalent of Jiffy Lube?  :-)

-- 
Hebb's dictum:  If it isn't worth doing, it isn't worth doing well.