Sponsored By
Efika 5200B Project
AmigaOS/MorphOS-capable NAS distributionin category Applications & Software
proposed by Sprocki on 31st October 2006
Project Proposal
The problem of all purchasable NAS systems is their use of an Amiga-foreign filesystem. You can store data there and access from an Amiga but you have to abdicate important structure information like file comments and original creation or download date and time. If you need this in some applications like databases for sorting, archiving and so on, for administration or statistics you have no chance to use it any more. E.g. storing data on a NAS makes you lose the information where you got your files from once, when they have been touched by different platforms with different filesystems and so on - so you cannot have a look at where you once got it to tell a friend where he can d/l it or check yourself in case of problems if a new version of the file is available. Some applications store additional information in th file comment like installation data.You also cannot install your own Amiga specific software on usual NAS systems, you are always bound to the OS (mostly some sort of Linux or embedded OS) which do not gain so much support and updates as you might like. Installing an alternative web server, print server and the like with different facilities is not so easy that way.
So what would be better than running the server software which you want your data administrate with on the server machine? You don\'t want to charge your workstation with it. So running the media server done with MUIbase on the EFIKA is no problem, you can always access and control it via web browser, Envoy, VNC or the like - chose yourself.
Despite that you can always attach an own display to your server to administer, control and play files directly without the need to stream it to your client. Running the backup software on the server itself is the next bonus that you don\'t want to let your workstation do so.
To eliminate this problem an Amiga dedicated NAS is the solution: conserve all necessary file information and access it from your \"real Amiga/Peg\". All you need is a fast connection (100Mbit is low end network speed today as hard drives become faster and faster which overwhelm this speed). That way you don\'t have to buy a too big machine and waste its capabilities with small cpu usage. Even a Peg II/G3 is expensive from that point of view. A small and quiet machine with the right OS jumps in the place: EFIKA.
Aim of this project is a complete and single installation AmigaOS/MorphOS-based NAS distribution with all the necessary server apps for this purpose that sits on top of MorphOS and may be bundled to EFIKA later on.
Step two will be upgrading the system for more server purposes fulfilling the needs of SOHO servers using MorphOS\' capabilities bringing back a small and easy to use and maintain OS into the offices without the need to understand complicated OSs like Linux or Windows targetting:
- private persons that don\'t bother which OS their internet gateway is running and
- small office administrators who often do not belong to those technically advanced user groups.
Amigas simple usage to home and professional users with little skills in installing complex server applications.
Project Blog Entries
