IOGEAR USB Net ShareStation – Possible Droboshare Replacement?

I came across a review for a new product called the USB Net ShareStation by IOGEAR. This little toy looks interesting enough, especially considering the fact that it allows one to use a 4port USB Hub to add more devices to your network via USB, this seems like a GREAT product. No more need for USB->Network print servers, and now I can use my external USB drives via my network. I am very interested in getting my hands on one of these badboys, and they are currently going for $50 shipped via eBay.

Couple of Con’s:

1. 1 major downside, it’s not Linux compatible out-of-the-box, hopefully someone will hack the device drivers to work with Linux soon… If you know of anyone currently working on this please leave me a comment and let me know.
2. 10/100Base-T port = Not Gigabit Ethernet

This got me thinking however what about using this as a replacement for the {currently} $200 DroboShare, this is essentially a DroboShare for 1/4 the cost, but would this work with the Drobo? Then of course this leads to a followup question of performance, which provides more throughput, the DroboShare or the ShareStation? I realize the DroboShare has a Gigabit ethernet connection, so this will probably be a major drawback, but I am curious to know what real-life experience/benchmarks between the too show…

Because this product is so new there aren’t alot of reviews that benchmark the ShareStation, but as I collect more information on this I will add it to this post. Please if you have any info on this, leave a comment.