"It's no secret that Linux runs behind many consumer devices, and embedded Linux fits in the tiniest of places. One of the latest ways to get your Linux fix comes in what looks like power wall wart from TonidoPlug. Under the cover you'll find essentially a Marvell SheevaPlug with a 1.2 GHz CPU, 512MB of DDR2 memory and a 512MB flash disk. On the outside you'll see a single USB port and an Ethernet jack.
"At the most basic level a TonidoPlug is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) adapter. The basic cost is $99 for the device. You'll have to add your own external USB disk to supply the storage. Underneath the covers the TonidoPlug is a full-fledged Linux computer running a standard distribution (Ubuntu 9.04). What you do with that is totally up to you.
"The idea is to just plug the thing into a wall outlet, connect an Ethernet cable and an external USB disk drive and you're ready to go. There's even a separate power plug to use if you don't want to plug it into the wall. You can use an external USB hub to connect multiple devices like USB memory sticks and external hard drives. It is recommended that you use a powered hub to avoid any potential overloading issues."
