“They’re cute, they’re cost-effective and they are worming their
way into small offices and remote branches every day. Meet the
entry-level server appliance, a machine growing in popularity for
Web and e-mail services.”
“These machines share three characteristics: They often have
an unusual design to differentiate them from typical PCs; they
include Web, e-mail, File Transport Protocol (FTP) and local area
network (LAN) server functions; and they do so in a single box that
runs Linux or FreeBSD Unix, a low-cost Unix product.”
“The majority of systems hover in the area of $1,500 to $1,800,
making them cheaper than a PC server with either Microsoft’s
Windows NT/2000 or Novell’s NetWare. Though they’re not cheaper
than a PC running Linux or another low-cost Unix variant, the
vendors bundle customized configuration and management utilities,
hiding the mysteries of the OSes from inexperienced users.”