eXcito Bubba Mini Home Server

By | August 18th, 2006 comments icon (3) Comments


excito bubbaSometimes the greatest asset of a “connected” home product are its form factor, functionality, and ease of use. On all counts, eXcito’s Bubba Mini Home Server appears to be winner. The Bubba is powered by a full-featured Debian GNU/Linux operating system – capable of installing and running any of the 15,000+ packages in the Debian repository – and comes bundled with an in-house developed web browser interface (screenshots) for administration, managing files, sharing folders, and downloading content from specified URLs. However, Bubba is much more than a standard NAS server running Samba, it’s also an Apache web server, email server, print server, and backup server.

Why I like it:
Bubba is essentially a Debian PC crammed into a small form factor, near-silent box that’s ready to be configured in any which way I choose (this is where my dabbling with Debian & Ubuntu Linux has been paying off). Plus, the web browser interface makes administering the most common features a breeze. I only wish it had a UPnP server function so that it could stream content to network connected digital media adapters, but there are plenty of free software solutions I can install on my own – or I can just buy TwonkyVision’s UPnP / DLNA Certified TwonkyMedia Server application.

Hardware Specifications:
3.5”, 5400/7200 rpm IDE disk drive, 80 GB ($330 USD) or 250 GB ($380 USD)
LAN/WAN standards: IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-TX; IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T
Data transfer rate: 100Mbps/10Mbps
USB 2.0 type A to Printer or memory stick connection
USB 2.0 type B to PC
Size: 184 x 114 x 43 mm, weight: 1700 g
Noise: < 20 dB in active mode, 0 dB when idle
Power: < 10W (active), < 2W (idle)





Filed in: Digital Media Servers

  • http://net-K.us/blog kaseiffert

    So, for under $400 we can get what is essentially a headless linux server with a web interface, or if we wish to install it, a VNC remote desktop?

    Thats a pretty sweet setup, I’d like to see it around the $250 mark but, its a good start into the market place.

    What processor is it running? Just curious, in case someone wants to install mysql or something and set up something like a fully functioning wordpress site on it…. ;)

  • pan

    Hi,
    I am working with the development of Bubba and I will try to answer your questions.
    Bubba is based on an 200MHz ARM9 with 64MB RAM. So this platform is not made for heavy database applications, but we have customers running mysql on the system with good results. However those systems are working with a limited number of users and have not been tested with heavy database accesses.
    Our website at http://www.excito.com has recently been updated with additional information to describe the hardware platform.

  • http://net-K.us/blog kaseiffert

    wordpress isn’t a heavy db application… if this works it would sort of redive the term mobile blog ;)

    heheh well I amuse myself at least.