This is just a little plug for a friend of mine who has built a new installer that re-installs an upto date OS on Cobalt RaQ3's & 4's.
Now for anyone who knows what a RaQ is, you'll also understand that since Cobalt got bought by Sun and then Sun ceased to provide updates for the RaQ OS a couple of years ago, that things have not been going too well for this neat piece of webhosting hardware.
Fortunately Sun did make the Cobalt OS "open-source" and as such, there's been a lot of work done to update the old OS and kick some life into it. Even so, the RaQ hardware is still a very useful work-horse and with the StrongBolt updates, makes this now entirely up to date.
Strongbolt is based on Centos 4 and BlueQuartz - both of which are open-source. The trick however, is to create an installer that re-installs the brand new OS onto the Cobalt and without messing it up.
It also upgrades the firmware ROM's to support ext3 and with the most recent patches to the installer, the LCD screen is now more informative during the install and the front buttons now work.
There's still some more work to be done, which in time will include support for the Qube 3 and also the RaQ 550.
A standard download of the OS costs just £35, but there is a summer sale on until 6th September, where you can save more !! (now only £27.00 !!)
or link here to buy from the OS Office webshop.
http://www.osoffice.co.uk/shop/
Plug over !!
BTW: It works brilliantly - I've updated some of my own webhosting servers to this OS and they are now more bullet proof than before, as well as being more secure and with updates now available via a simple "yum update" command, the futures looking good.
regards,
Tim
PS If you need any more info on this OS, please visit the OSOffice website and/or forum.
