Since later point releases of 0.8 line (don't remember exactly) Node.js compiles on ARM out of the box. I think node.js is a great fit here, since it's a high level environment that is comparatively light on resources. Also, 0.6.x is available as debian package for ARM, but some cool things (such as connect-assets) need 0.8.
I myself have a Hackberry board (beffier and more expensive than Pi), and use it as sort of junk drawer of a home/download/communication automation server - runs headless version of Debian and bunch of small applications.
Also, automating the setup of the whole thing made the whole experience much more pleasant. I myself used Sprinkle - you can check it out here https://github.com/tmikoss/hackberry
> since it's a high level environment that is comparatively light on resources
Just an FYI, but Node.js needs to load the V8 engine for each process. So each process is at least 10MB, which compared to pretty much every other language, is pretty heavy.
In the other hand, due to Node.js' asynchronous nature, single process (thread) can serve big number of simultaneous clients, assuming the code is non-blocking.
Not entirely sure, but it is possible that V8 is dynamically linked, and thus you would only get the 10MB hit once. Any experts around to confirm or deny that?
I bought an Edimax N USB wifi adapter for my raspberry on amazon. It was like $11 and works out of the box with raspian. Now the damn thing boots and connects to my network faster than I can enter my 25 char password on my primary machine.
I myself have a Hackberry board (beffier and more expensive than Pi), and use it as sort of junk drawer of a home/download/communication automation server - runs headless version of Debian and bunch of small applications.
Also, automating the setup of the whole thing made the whole experience much more pleasant. I myself used Sprinkle - you can check it out here https://github.com/tmikoss/hackberry