Although not an ARM device, the old Linksys Wrt54G (2002) was the first device to really get hackers interested and building a community around embedded Linux computing. There were other things but it was really the only one that was affordable and network connected.
Later on the Linksys NSLU2 (2004, a network USB hard drive adapter) came out and was the first ARM based "computer" to really catch on. The custom firmware and optware offered a pretty good posix experience. It wasn't until 2008 when debian support came out, give the world a fully modern Linux experience on a little embedded device.
After that companies started seeing a niche market and programmers accepted the challenge of installing linux on everything and we got things like the Sheeva Plug and BeagleBoard.
A few years later the Raspberry Pi came out with an unbeatable price and community support.
And then a decade later we're getting hints of the possibility of ARM computers with true workstation level of computing power.
Later on the Linksys NSLU2 (2004, a network USB hard drive adapter) came out and was the first ARM based "computer" to really catch on. The custom firmware and optware offered a pretty good posix experience. It wasn't until 2008 when debian support came out, give the world a fully modern Linux experience on a little embedded device.
After that companies started seeing a niche market and programmers accepted the challenge of installing linux on everything and we got things like the Sheeva Plug and BeagleBoard.
A few years later the Raspberry Pi came out with an unbeatable price and community support.
And then a decade later we're getting hints of the possibility of ARM computers with true workstation level of computing power.