[img]http://tech-software.net/sbs1_wolrld_server.JPG[/img]
Andrew
Piotr designed a USB driver for linux, that basically connects to the raw data coming from the SBS-1, and redirects it out a TCP socket. From there you can develop your own software to process it.
http://piopawlu.net/projects/sbs1-utils/
Alas, it had some bugs, and I think he's a college student, so he hasn't been active with it for a long time. I wrote a program to use the raw socket but the driver seemed to crash often enough I haven't gone back to play with it since last winter. The Boris Y-connector works better for my playing around with raw sbs-1 data.
I have Ubuntu running as a virtual server under vmware, but I've never been a big fan of X Windows (look and feel). I administer two SGI super computers at work, and they use SuSE 10 and Intel Fortran (yuck), and being a redhat guy from way back, the version makes me think about retiring almost every week. Ubunto is along those lines as well, but Ubuntu was the first linux that actually saw my wireless card without me having to compile the kernel myself.
I like my Vista Java IDE just fine.
I think it's kind of a dead-end street. I think the days of proprietary closed designs is almost over. I think in a few years, the SBS-1 and ANRB will become historical notes. The CHICOM's aren't just sitting around watching Twisted Evil