What are some interesting devices powered by Linux?
Here's a few that I know of. What other things are commonly running Linux that most people may but be aware of?
- Ingenuity (helicopter drone on Mars)
- Smart TVs and streaming devices (Samsung's TizenOS and Roku devices)
- Smart appliances (Samsung's smart refrigerator)
- Digital signs and billboards
- My car stereo (Sony XAV-AX6000)
- The Large Hadron Collider
- FAA Air traffic control and radar systems
- Self driving cars
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All 3 billion Android devices in the world. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. Also 96% of the top 1 million web servers and all of the 500 fastest super computers (excluding quantum) in the world.
Quantum computers aren't fast, they're very slow.
Eventually, if things keep progressing, they'll be able to do certain things like factoring primes faster than conventional computers. But, the clock rate will probably always be abysmal.
What are the quantum computers running? Also, please tell me they can run Doom.
afaik quantum computers don't run operative systems, they are programmed to do exactly one thing.
And no, they can't run Doom.
Are they really computers then?
Think of them like graphics cards. They are more of a component to do calculations that the cpu either can’t do, or would take too long to do. So calling something (the whole shebang) a quantum computer is like calling a computer training AI an ML Server.
In the classical sense, yes.
If Doom can run on pregnancy tests and IKEA light bulbs, it must be possible to run it on the most advanced kind of computer known to mankind I guess
Doom, yes.
Crysis?
maybe
Remarkable eink tablets. Buried deep in the settings they actually give you the root password so you can SSH in. Also, it comes with an epic .vimrc file.
THEY DO?!? NO WAY!
But, the software they ship is completely closed source and displaying anything on the screen requires hacking the binary (each software release). They have have been the opposite of helpful to open source for the last few years and have stooped to a cloud company trying to collect your data.
What is the best supported Linux e-ink device that's decent? I really want the PineNote, but it seems like its hard to find in stock and its pretty damn expensive. At this point, I'd consider building my own with off the shelf parts.
I thonk kobo or onyx
I was referring specifically to Remarkable-brand devices... but Kobos are nice too, with that company also being indifferent to aftermarket hacks.
Oh, good point. If I was being brand-proper I'd spell it "reMarkable"... but, lol, not doing that.
https://github.com/reMarkable/linux At that, there are ways to hack it of course (Fairly certain it “ruins” some returns/warranty policies, but if you can in those cases, you can easily revert the modified bits if needed)
tl;dr : if you want to try to hack it safely, heads up to : https://remarkable.guide/
If you would like to run a pre-made Debian chroot on it. Saw other distros from other users https://github.com/Eeems-Org/remarkable-debian-chroot
If you would like to use (Not fully replace for stability/recovery concerns) another launcher which is MIT licensed https://github.com/Eeems-Org/oxide
You can install the “vanilla” (minus extra bits) kernel via Toltec https://toltec-dev.org/stable/#section-launchers
Aaaand, if you want to go the full libre way, there's a port of parabola on it sold here http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/ Article here https://hackaday.com/2020/09/06/a-free-software-os-for-the-remarkable-e-paper-tablet/
Kindles too. You can jailbreak them and get a shell. They're so much more useful when they're jailbroken. They can read multiple other formats, they can get books from a fileserver on your local network, the jailbroken reader app is better, etc.
Yeah, I've made a custom lock screen picture and uploaded it. I unfortunately have to redo it every update.
Also what is a .vimrc file?
Settings/customizations file for legendary text editor vim. Remarkable's comes with a lot of stuff built-in.
Robot vacuums. Some of them you can root and install the opensource Valetudo.
Yes!! I can SSH into mine! Just fuggin wild that they run Ubuntu =-D
Great. Time to update Nginx on my vacuum.
Wow, this open source firmware is cool
The handheld gaming console - valve steam deck
Also Handheld emulation consoles
Really it's the backbone of the modern tech world.
Yeah, it used to be just web servers in a data center. Bigger systems used mainframes. Consumer electronics used custom RTOSes or other custom boards. Now it's everywhere. It's used in the biggest systems, like the computers that power virtually every Google product, and the smallest systems. It's almost not worth it not to use Linux when building a tiny device because it makes the dev cycle so much shorter.
Jesus I've been using Linux for years and your comment just made this really click for me. Do you think Linus is protected by governments and stuff? Like I know he didn't make all of it, and there's lots of forks, but he's defacto in charge... That's gotta be a lot of soft power
The vast majority of the web, really.
Nearly all of AWS.
I have been making interactive dioramas with Linux.
This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while.
Thanks! I have been having fun experimenting with them.
That's really cool, shame you hosted it on a site owned by one of the big five.
I'm not sure what you are talking about. Do you mean that I posted it on Instagram? Because I have also posted it on mastodon and some other places. that was just the easiest link I had around.
Also the game is completely independent of any "platform" it's all a web app that I have 100% control over. It's also made with JavaScript so no unity or other giant game engine company can skim any money out of it if I start making a profit. I tried to build it using only free and opened source libraries.
Yeah, I meant that you posted it on Instagram. I didn't realise you'd also posted it on Mastodon, I would appreciate if you shared those links instead in the future. I had to close about 11 popups just to see the video.
International Space Station.
The lego mindstorms ev3 robot
Bruh it takes like 40 seconds to boot my lego brick 💀 im not even kidding
I KNOW
Cars. Either entertainment system or navigation or more..
BMW has quite the list of licences for opensource libraries and Linux in the about section of the car-menu.
And more and more network equipment.
So we can download the sources?
BMW requires you to go the written notice path and they send you a DVD with the sources
is this a joke? please tell me this is a joke
Its one of the oldest ways people disribute linux sources, and while it seems dumb, its actually good because regions with poor or no internet can also be served.
Poor global south nations graciously appreciating the source code for their BMWs. This seems closer to malicious compliance.
It’s not super horrible, and they’re meeting the requirements for GPLv2
I’d rather a git repo with history that can be cloned with physical media as a backup option
If you’re looking for a real bad one, Qualcomm has been trying to claim that their devicetree, which is equivalent to ACPI, and 100% necessary to boot anything is somehow “proprietary”
Yuck. I wish Qualcomm a very get fucked by RISC-V.
Passenger information systems in public transport. Some might run some kind of embedded windows, but most run on Linux. Certainly here in Czechia, but I believe it's common at east throughout the Central Europe.
The Hanz Niemann buttplug probably
Pretty much everything that's running on a microprocessor (i.e. larger than a microcontroller) and not from Microsoft or Apple.
The thin piece of electronics in my hand that I'm typing this on
Linux powers robotic cow-milking machine
https://lwn.net/Articles/156862/
They link doesn't say the jwst uses Linux. Just that python is used by the jwst team.
Passenger Entertainment Systems in Boeing 737 MAX.
my sexbot
"I fuck Arch, btw."
Arch is the hot one, Debian is the girl next door, NixOS is the cute barista down the street.
Kali has three kids and smokes (but every once in a while...)
Many cars are powered by a flavor of Linux called AGL - Automotive Grade Linux
Check out all the brands shown here:
https://www.automotivelinux.org
My lump charcoal smoker.
I was product manager at a company that made PTZ cameras based on Linux. The company was acquired a few times but still actually manufactures them in Minnetonka MN. Kind of fun working at a place the had development, manufacturing, support and engineering in one building.
https://www.legrandav.com/Products/Cameras/Videoconferencing%20PTZ%20Camera/RoboSHOT-12E-USB/
How do you rate these cameras against the competition?
Well, it turns out only a handful of companies actually make image modules. I would say it is better in terms of US based support, firmware, hardware design, and the fact it meets TAA and buy America compliance. I've seen these cameras in the DoD and even in the oval office. If you want a camera that is absolutely not spying on you I can vouch for these because I have watched the firmware get built on these.
Hate them or love them, Teslas are run on Linux.
https://github.com/teslamotors/linux
Last commit was more than 5 years ago..
Apparently most of their code is not open source.
Parrot's older consumer drones. They took really long to power up, and ran very hot.
I believe you could telnet into them too, although that was later discovered to be a bug and not a feature
The reMarkable runs on Linux too! It's an eink paper tablet
Some old Archos media players, such as the 605 WiFi, run a locked down Linux according to Wikipedia.
I know at least few components in the power grid that run on top of linux
AKAI MPC standalones running some kind of Linux flavor https://niklasnisbeth.gitlab.io/mpc-internals/
Too bad they won’t release their DAW software for Linux desktops.
Ableton’s Push 3 standalone runs Linux too. Same gripe about their DAW as well.
Google
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