[Soekris] Any suggestion for alternative?

[Jan Mikkelsen]

Chris Babcock wrote:
> Tuc at T-B-O-H.NET wrote:
>> 	I'm just trying to see if there are viable 
>> alternatives that are in the Soekris class. There are solutions
>> like :
>>
>> http://www.plees.f2s.com/ec/mini-svr/mini-svr.htm
>>
>> 	but I can't see it being cost effective/supported/etc.
>>
>> 	I came to the list mostly looking for people who worked
>> with SBC's that had, unfortunately, to run Winderz.
>>
> The _ONLY_ current production Windows OS that is capable of running 
> properly in a headless configuration is Windows Server 2003.
 >
 > All previous versions had a hard-coded dependency on the video
 > controller that would have to be satisfied with either a real video
 > card _or_ some type of video emulation system beneath windows.

Just a quick point here:  Windows XP Embedded can be configured run 
headless.  Windows CE can be configured to run headless.  These aren't 
"consumer" Windows products but they do exist.

[ ...]

> For the kind of application you are suggesting, you are almost certainly 
> better off buying something like a cheap dell server with mirrored 
> disks.  Currently you can get a very low end server for about $800 or 
> so, with full vendor support for the hardware.  HOWEVER, if you are 
> intent on running Windows 98, you are probably out of luck for 
> software/driver support, since even MS refuses to support that OS 
> anymore.  In fact, you may be very challenged to find _ANY_ current 
> hardware that will run Win98 properly.  You may be forced to run an 
> emulation environment if you are committed to Win98, simply because you 
> may not be able to find hardware that works with Win98 anymore.

Sadly, there is a lot of embedded stuff running Win98.  I think a 
PC104/PC104+ device might also be a reasonable choice:  designed for 
embedding, no moving parts, and many look much like an old PC to software.

Jan Mikkelsen