QNAP Brings Debian Lenny To Turbo NAS Drives
For those looking to add a little Linux to their QNAP Turbo NAS device,
now you can. The company has just announced that Debian Lenny (version
5.0) is now available on all of its QNAP ARM-platform Turbo NAS drives
including the TS-109, TS-209, TS-409 series and TS-409U.
We've heard pretty good things about the default system on QNAP
devices, but we're always up for alternatives. According to Andy Chuo,
Product Manager from QNAP: "The latest Debian Lenny now fully supports
our TS-109, TS-209, TS-409 series and TS-409U Turbo NAS. As Debian is
considered the only major Linux distribution which actively supports
the ARM platform as well as its prominent feature of APT package
management system that provides over 10,000 software applications, QNAP
saw its open community nature and the potential applications and uses
it might bring to inspire us to continually improve our products. We
decided to support the efforts to add Debian support for devices based
on Marvell's Orion SoC the CPU used by all our ARM-based NAS products.
It can also serve as an alternative to the standard firmware to offer
our users more competitive options to maximize the use of their NAS."

Most likely, this move is one to gather the attention of diehard Linux
fanatics who wouldn't typically give a QNAP NAS any consideration. We
definitely appreciate the company's willingness to let the end-user
have total control over the product, and if you're concerned with
installation, QNAP has provided an easy to follow install guide here.