Originally posted by: vegetation
I'm thinking of it too, but do I need to buy the bios or not? Also, do I need a drive cable if I'm just going to attempt the Midori linux install to the built in flash memory? I do have a spare laptop drive around, but I don't want the hard drive activated, as a totally silent system is what I want. If I can save money by skipping the cost of the drive cable, then so much the better!
You don't need the drive cable if you are not going to install the drive. You can always install the drive later if you choose and get the drive cables later. The IOpener has a USB port, I wonder if the new USB memory drives could be recognized in some way along with th flash Midori Linux install? I have used the USB port for speakers and a USB networking hub on broadband.
The market for these "Netappliances" was toward computer neophytes to have in the kitchen to check e-mail and download recipes. Very neatly engineered little device that could only be hacked with a notebook HDD because the heatsink was so huge, that when removed, left plenty or room for it.
Part of the fun in all this was that (for those that don't know) it cost $399 to buy them outright, and you still had to join their ISP for the $20 bucks a month, but they were reported to be at CompUsa for $99. These were being sold sans contract (TOS), so they could be bought and hacked. There were six in my area that were available, and I posted it here as a hot deal. Part of the joy in hacking this device was that it was not supposed to be done, and the efforts of the manufacturer to stop this, by putting epoxy over the bios chip so it would be difficult to remove and reflash to the original bios that recognized HDD's. Later they cut the pins where you would hook up the notebook HDD. The whole episode with this Netpliance IOpener was funny as hell. Being in on this from start to finish is something that the people that did it will never forget.