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MicroClient Introduction

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Graham Dinsdale

I have started this blog to document my purchase and subsequent use of a small form-factor (SFF) computer called the MicroClient Sr.

Made by Thailand-based Norhtec, the MicroClient Sr. is the higher powered descendent of the popular MicroClient Jr. machine.

The MicroClient Sr. features a 500Mhz ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor from Via and 512MB of RAM. Other features include 3 USB 2.0 port, integrated hardware MPEG-2 decoder and a Compact Flash slot. Total power consumption is supposed to be under 10W, making this machine an extremely green choice! If used without a hard drive (laptop type), there are no moving parts meaning super quiet operation.

I have ordered a MicroClient Sr.  and am currently waiting for it to be delivered to the UK. Shipping of these new units has only just started, so I may have to wait a few weeks. Expected delivery is around the end of January. Estimated cost is $257, which is roughly £130.

When I receive my unit I intend to install some variant of linux on it. Current candidates include X/Ubuntu, Puppy and DSL (Damn Small Linux). Any other suggestions are most welcome.

Check back soon for updates. I am also happy to supply specific information about the unit not available on the ‘net when I receive it.

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8 Responses

  1. aven, on February 6th, 2008 at 8:02 pm Said:

    Hi, I’m with you in this adventure! ;) I’ve ordered my MicroClient Sr after a entire day searching for a sostitute of my dead home server running on a celeron 900 downclocked to 600 (r.i.p.). My home server was running courier-imap/postfix email server, an emule client, samba for my windows shares and firefly for share my mp3 library using iTunes client. I think this pc can be all I’m searching for… My initial choice was the zanbox (via 1.2ghz, 512mz, 8gb flash card), but was too expensive (299$ without shipment costs), then I’ve found some funny wireless router like Asus wl500g and linksys nslu2, both running openwrt/linux, but their cpu(s) was too slow (intel xscale 266mhz and a undefined arm processor) for the use what I’m looking for. I’m happy to see your blog, I suggest you to give it more visibility on google, because I’d found it not easly. Ok, I finish. Sorry for my bad english and good luck for this interesting blog. Bye .

    Reply
  2. myles, on February 8th, 2008 at 9:58 pm Said:

    Hi Graham,
    I’m very interested in the product and thinking of using it with Ubuntu.
    any news yet?

    Mylse

    Reply
  3. Graham Dinsdale, on February 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm Said:

    Hi guys, Thanks for finding my blog and taking the time to post, much appreciated!

    aven: I think the MicroClient Sr. will be perfect for replacing your old pc. Let me know when you get yours (what country are you in?) Your english is fine by the way.

    myles: See my new post regarding my order status. Keep checking back here for further info.

    Reply
  4. aven, on February 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am Said:

    I’m from Italy, Graham. On their site my order status is “delayed – backordered”…. I hope to receive my MSr quickly, but I think that will take a lot of time :( I’ve just made my own debian using cloop for a compressed filesystem. I’m very happy of my result: a Debian etch in 24mb with samba plus kernel&initrd (should be ~ +3mb). Bye

    Reply
  5. Graham Dinsdale, on February 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm Said:

    My order status is the same as yours, “Items backordered – order delayed”. See my update with a reply from Norhtec.

    Delivery will hopefully be in the next 2 weeks or so… Your customised debian sounds interesting, is that what you plan to use on your MSr when you get it?

    Reply
  6. aven, on February 12th, 2008 at 10:16 pm Said:

    Yes, I’ll put it on the original 32MB CF card from my canon. Obviously I have a bigger one on my camera so that CF is unused, and ready for my MSr ;) I’m testing it through qemu but this seems giving me more troubles then what MSr will do :-D Btw root filesystem is ready and I’m working only with initrd/kernel ;) If someone is interest on it I can upload somewhere my images.

    Bye

    Reply
  7. Graham Dinsdale, on February 13th, 2008 at 7:37 am Said:

    Ah, so you are cutting down your OS to fit it onto a CF card. I have heard that qemu emulation can be difficult to use, although I have no experience of using it myself.

    Which file system (JFS, ext2 etc.) are you using on your compact flash card?

    If you upload your images somewhere, let me know and I will place a link to them on this blog. :-)

    Reply
  8. aven, on February 13th, 2008 at 10:16 am Said:

    Yes I’d cut everything not needed to booting and the services, result in a very small root filesystem ;-) Cloop has an ext2 inside btw filesystem type has not big relevance, you only need one that is not wasting space for journal… and then, may be, a tuning on block size. JFS is a journal FS, so its not what we need, and JFFS is a compressed FS, but compression is just done by cloop (it is read-only but it has a best compress ratio and speed). Qemu is now working, my problem was the initrd that was a modified version of debian initrd. Solved making one from scratch ;-) Thanks for the link! MicroclientSr is a not well know product, so I’m important to collect all info is possible in a single place ;-) I’m writing too much but now we can do only this :-D Bye

    Reply

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