Are you looking to use it as a security camera? I'm currently trying to get motion running..
motion.technolust.cx
It only records images when motion is detected. It supports USB cameras but I'm not sure which. It also has its own small webserver built in to control it remotely and there's also a cgi script to do the same.
The downside is that it is only available as source code. I've set up another e-smith box and installed the dev-tools but I'm still having trouble compiliing it due to my lack of experience probably. I reckon the effort will be worth it in the end.
Let me know if you try it.
Hope this helps
Norrie
8o)