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Before I dig into the guide, it’s best to briefly explain what the Sheevaplug is. As computers have gotten faster and faster and cheaper and cheaper over the years, the focus has shifted from being “the fastest” to being “good enough.” Take a look at the Intel Atom chip. It has flooded the market, and it seems like airports are now more filled with netbooks than they are with traditional laptops. The atom is fast enough for most people, and it uses very little power, enabling the devices to be much smaller and use way less battery. This low power technology translates extremely well into the home server or electronic appliance world. More and more of the devices in our household are becoming connected, and we need low power chips to help connect that world. What if you could have a server so small that it was only slightly bigger than a traditional wall wart plug? Marvell had this idea, and they came up with the concept of Plug Computing. Plug Computing means taking a a barebones PC with a low powered Marvell ARM CPU and sticking it inside of a “plug” and then letting companies / users explore the possibilities. There have been a few pre-packaged offerings like TonidoPlug (or you can set up Tonido on your Sheevaplug!), PogoPlug, and a few others. The Sheevaplug is a development unit that people can buy, and it’s great fun to play around with! I’ve been able to turn it into a NAS, a music server, and a few other things, all at the same time! Read on to find out how to get this thing set up for the first time. Read the rest of this entry »