What Got It All Started

One of the things that got me interested in rolling my own server was a review I came across over at Linux.com about a very small and low powered home server called Bubba from a company call Excito.

After doing a little research, it become pretty clear getting my hands on the Swedish Bubba Server would not be easy since they did not have a United States distributor and the currency exchange rate made purchasing a unit from a UK based supplier prohibitive. After learning this it begged the the question, could I make something similar at a lower coat and learn something in the process?

Today I was reviewing what applications the Bubba Server is running and learned they are now selling the second generation of the Bubba which unimaginatively is named the Bubba Two. Specs have beefed up:

SERVICES	BUBBA|TWO
Downloader (HTTP, FTP, TORRENT)
Itunes music streaming (Firefly/DAAP/Soundbridge)
UPnP media streaming (Mediatomb)
Squeezebox Streaming (Slimserver/Squeeze center)	Future firmware upgrade
File server (HTTP, Samba, FTP, SCP)
Web server	(Lighthttpd)
Webmail client	(Horde)
Email Server (Dovecot, Postfix)
Fetchmail Server (Fetchmail)
Printer Server (Cups)
SSH connetion to internal Linux
Linux 2.6 + Debian Etch
Firewall
Router
Wireless access point	Planned
DNS server
DHCP server
RAID 1 support with external eSATA disk(s)	Planned
HARDWARE	BUBBA|TWO
Internal hard drive	up to 1TB SATA
Internal memory	256 MB DDR2
Processor	333 MHz Power PC
Network connectivity	2 x 1000 Mbit/s
USB 2.0	2 x 480 Mbit/s
eSATA	Yes, 2
Power consumption**	7-12W (disk dependent)
Kensington lock slot	Yes
Fan	No

For a turnkey solution the new Bubba looks compelling but at $452 USD for the 1T version it is still out of my reach. I guess I am going to have to keep learning how I can put something together for myself and that is just fine with me. I relish the learning experience.

For the same amount of money I will be able to put together a much more powerful and flexible system that is nearly as thrifty with electricity. The only real drawback will be the lack of Bubba's consolidated web based configuration and management tools.