If you're going to do some good development for the Empeg and contribute to the community, I would hope that someone with a well-connected Linux box would give you an account. I would do it but my "Linux box" is a VMware virtual PC running on my real PC, and if you and I both decided to compile something, we'd have to pack a lunch. Plus my upstream bandwidth is atrocious.

If I had cable modem and a second PC as my Linux box, I'd give you a shell in a heartbeat. Assuming you were working on some cool projects for the Empeg :) I think we need more hackers around here.