Home › Blogs › Johan Thelin's blog ›

Where do you find Linux?

Jul 30, 2010  By Johan Thelin
 in

Looking through my home for Linux systems I just realized that it is everywhere. First of all, I find it on my computers - from servers to laptop. That is the obvious place though. I wonder, where else can I find Linux running?

Next, I find it on my set-top-box, a DM500 - a dreambox. The dreamboxes range from my very basic PAL receiver to devices with multiple receivers and HD-support. All are based on a Linux system running on a PowerPC processor. The box has networking and there is community driven development version of the software running on the box. The result - I can stream TV to my laptop, play content from my server and set record timers over the internet.

Then, looking further, there is a cell phone. Not mine actually, but my wife has an Android phone, so that has to count. Not as hackable as I'd like. I just might have to get a N900 to remedy this situation. Any phone with a shell prompt is a must have :-)

Realizing that I missed the obvious - my router. The LinkSys WRT54-something router happily runs Linux. Actually, it is running (a rather old) image from the OpenWrt project. OpenWrt can be considered as a distribution for Linux-based routers. I can't boast about having configured and extended it to prepare my morning coffee - but the community driven images can handle features such as printer sharing and NAS in addition to being a great DHCP server and firewall.

Looking in my daughters room, I can't find Linux anywhere - at least not yet. However, a small Tux sits on a shelf.

Image courtesy of: Larry Ewing, Simon Budig and Anja Gerwinski.

______________________

Johan Thelin is a consultant working with Qt, embedded and free
software. On-line, he is known as e8johan.

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

I found it on Continental

Rishi's picture
Submitted by Rishi (not verified) on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 06:12.

I found it on Continental Airlines' in-flight entertainment system -- they run Ubuntu!

tryMINT

romas's picture
Submitted by romas (not verified) on Sun, 08/22/2010 - 06:55.

TRY LINUX MINT. ITS BEST.

I was just on a Continental

metalx2000's picture
Submitted by metalx2000 on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 08:53.

I was just on a Continental flight 2 days ago. How did you find out they were running Ubuntu? I'm going to be on another flight in a few days.

http://filmsbykris.com/
Everything you ever need to know about Open-Source Software.

One of the machines crashed,

Rishi's picture
Submitted by Rishi (not verified) on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 09:48.

One of the machines crashed, I guess (so it was being rebooted, I think) -- I saw the Ubuntu penguin and logo at the top of a shell window as lines of text were flashing by.

Roku anyone?

bertrapp's picture
Submitted by bertrapp on Sun, 08/08/2010 - 10:18.

I'm surprised no one mentioned a Roku box? I've got a Roku box that streams Netflix movies. It runs Linux. http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/roku%E2%80%94breaking-linux-not-invi...

Our Cisco IDS runs on Linux.

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 18:37.

Our Cisco IDS runs on Linux.

on my music players

snarlydwarf's picture
Submitted by snarlydwarf (not verified) on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 15:23.

... my Squeezebox Radio, Touch and Controller all run Linux. As does my Samsung TV. (The wife says I can't enable telnet on the TV and log in...)

Samsung TV

Oppie's picture
Submitted by Oppie (not verified) on Sun, 08/08/2010 - 08:06.

A tv with linux on it? What would you need linux on a tv for?

TV's need software to Display

metalx2000's picture
Submitted by metalx2000 on Sun, 08/08/2010 - 08:51.

TV's need software to Display the picture on the screen, control Volume, set date and time, pretty much all their basic functions. Many Companies will use Linux and/or other Open-Source software for this. It saves time and money on development. But, if they are using something that is under a GPL then they are required to supply a copy of the GPL with the product. A bunch of companies just got in trouble for not doing this, Best Buy was one of them and I think JVC was in there too. I believe it was Busy Box they were using. Someone correct me if I got the details of that law suite wrong.

http://filmsbykris.com/
Everything you ever need to know about Open-Source Software.

where to find?

lottaine's picture
Submitted by lottaine (not verified) on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 04:56.

i just come across this place by search laptop batteries on google...

Sony TV

nihed's picture
Submitted by nihed (not verified) on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 02:45.

My new Sony BRAVIA TV use linux as OS.
Maybe, we will have one day more codec and option throw community

Linux

gArden gOals's picture
Submitted by gArden gOals (not verified) on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 12:32.

At my house we have quite a bit too. Most of the computers--from netbooks to laptops to desktops to a local server run various distributions of Linux.

We have a couple of cheap Motorola phones that technically run a Linux kernel because of LiMo.

yup besides my laptop my cell

eko's picture
Submitted by eko (not verified) on Sat, 07/31/2010 - 00:19.

yup besides my laptop my cell phone is using linux. altough not android but it using motorola ezx linux (ROKR E6) and motomagx (ZN5).
on the ezx one I love when I can access the shell :)

Got Root? I DO!

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 18:30.

Ummm Download ConnectBot... connect to localhost, get your $ prompt you wanted... seems like it's there!

I also have # in case you don't know what that is, # aka ROOT access to my DROID...

" Not as hackable as I'd like. I just might have to get a N900 to remedy this situation. Any phone with a shell prompt is a must have :-)"

Bravia

jmite's picture
Submitted by jmite (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 13:44.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I read somewhere that the Sony Bravia televisions run some simplified version of linux...

Sony and Linux

Debianero Rumbero's picture
Submitted by Debianero Rumbero (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 14:03.

Yep, look at http://products.sel.sony.com/opensource/

I love this group!

metalx2000's picture
Submitted by metalx2000 on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 11:22.

I love this group of commenters.
2 of you have N800. I use to love my N800. I sold it to get some money for my N900, which I love. I still wish I had My N800, just a another device to play with.

I'm going to check out the sites that TOM TOM recommended.
http://www.opentom.org
http://www.tomtomheaven.com/

http://filmsbykris.com/
Everything you ever need to know about Open-Source Software.

i actually fought with myself

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 11:25.

i actually fought with myself for quite a while trying to decide between the droid and an n900. If there were more carrier options in the states for the n900 it wouldn't have even been a question.

The only real draw back to

metalx2000's picture
Submitted by metalx2000 on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 11:55.

The only real draw back to the N900 is that. The device is great. But you are limited to At&t or Tmobile. Hopefully we will see more Maemo or should I say Meego options in the near future. And hopefully they will keep it as open as it currently is.

P.S. BMW announced the other day that they will be useing MeeGo in the car's entertainment units soon.

http://filmsbykris.com/
Everything you ever need to know about Open-Source Software.

My Panasonic TV runs on Linux

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 10:36.

My Panasonic TV runs on Linux (found the GPL license agreement in the on screen menu by coincidence).

TomTom

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 09:28.

My TomTom navigation system runs Linux and I've added an X server to it. MPlayer runs nicely.

Links:
http://www.opentom.org
http://www.tomtomheaven.com/

Well here's where i can find

demo's picture
Submitted by demo (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 09:06.

Well here's where i can find Linux in my house.

Arch + Slackware on my Desktop
uClinux running on my PlayStation portable
Ubuntu 10.04 on my brothers laptop
Some old piece of junk running Xubuntu 9.04
And a whole shelf dedicated to about 80 live cd's (both linux and bsd's... i guess that counts xD)

I have also tried convincing my parents to scrap windows xp from their computer, and maybe use Linux mint, but not going so good at the moment.

Seems to be almost everywhere. Next step, Linux powered toaster!

Hmm, that might just be the

Chris S's picture
Submitted by Chris S (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 13:44.

Hmm, that might just be the first I've heard of a shelf "running" Linux...

Well, let's see: - Arch Linux

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 08:53.

Well, let's see:
- Arch Linux on my laptop
- Arch Linux on my wife's laptop
- Arch Linux + XBMC on my custom HTPC
- Arch Linux + Touchscreen on my daughter's eee 701
- Tomato Firmware on my Linksys router
- Maemo on my Nokia n800
- Android on my Droid and the wife's Eris
- Now that I think about it, my Samsung LN series TV runs a linux firmware too...

Wow. I just realized that. We've been a Windows free household since before my daughter was born 3 years ago. Not strictly so, we just haven't had the need.

My house!

Jake's picture
Submitted by Jake (not verified) on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 08:01.

At my house we have quite a bit too. Most of the computers--from netbooks to laptops to desktops to a local server run various distributions of Linux.

We have a couple of cheap Motorola phones that technically run a Linux kernel because of LiMo.

Our Tom Tom runs Linux.

My Nokia N800 Internet Tablet runs Linux--quite hackably! I <3 Maemo.

My Barnes & Noble nook runs Linux through Android distribution.

But not too much else. Have some phones running generic OSs and one Blackberry. The ruoter is a cheapo Netgear with no chance of a Linux distro. And nothing fancy in the living room or anything. Probably our lack of Linux gadgets is more attributable to a lack of gadgets.. a situation I'd love to remedy!

N900 FTW!!!

metalx2000's picture
Submitted by metalx2000 on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 07:33.

You have to get a Nokia N900. Right now the only thing that comes close to it as a netbook. There is no phone in the same league as the N900.

Also, Check out this Sony Site and see if your TV, Digital Camera, or other Sony devices are running Linux:
http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/common/search.html

http://filmsbykris.com/
Everything you ever need to know about Open-Source Software.

Webcast
More Resources
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers

Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.

Learn More

Sponsored by AMD

White Paper
More Resources
Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.

Learn More

Sponsored by DLT Solutions