A common attitude among people who believe in free software is to stick it to “the man.” For some people, that translates into spending a ton of free time porting Linux to devices that were never designed for it.
This is one of the things that always amazes me when I read about the latest high-tech devices that been modified to run Linux. Some of these implementations may be incomplete, and I’m not sure why someone would take a brand new device and risk bricking it…
Ok, I lied – I nearly bricked my iPhone last night in the process of updating to the latest firmware version… about a month after a working hack was available. Something about being the first person to try out the latest hack on a $400 dollar device just doesn’t seem appealing to me.
Here’s a short list of devices that make unlikely with Linux. Enjoy!
- AppleTV: http://www.mactel-linux.org/wiki/AppleTV
- Browser: http://www.workspot.com/screenshots/gimp.html
- Gmail: http://www.hackaday.com/2005/04/14/run-linux-on-gmail/
- GameCube: http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/04/01/warp_pipe.html
- Dreamcast: http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7466555948.html
- HTC Smartphones: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Xanadux
- iPod: http://ipodlinux.org/Main_Page
- Mainframes: http://parisc-linux.org/
- Palm PDAs: http://palmtelinux.sourceforge.net/
- PS2: http://playstation2-linux.com/
- Edit: MSN TV2 http://www.toc2rta.com/index.php/?q=node/2
- PSP: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1906893,00.asp
- Edit: JuiceBox: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/run_linux_on_a_juicebox.html
- Edit: Mac Classic: http://mac.linux-m68k.org/
- Wii: http://www.wiili.org/index.php/Main_Page
- Windows: http://wubi-installer.org/
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/instlux/ - Wireless Routers: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation http://hyperwrt.org/
- Xbox: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/linux-install.php
- Xbox360: http://www.free60.org/wiki/Main_Page
Last but not least, a toaster: http://pics.defcon.org/showphoto.php?photo=53&cat=512
I showed you mine, now you get to show me yours! What would you like to see running Linux?
Edit… PS3, VirtualPC and USB drives were removed.
Here’s another for you all… Your Mom Can Run Linux: http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-08-03-032-26-OP-DT
12 replies on “20 Awesome Devices That Run Linux (But Weren’t Designed To)”
My old XBOX made a great MythTV front end. XBMC is also quite awesome.
I don’t know about you, but I want that toaster.
-A
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Oh yeah, I’d take the toaster for SURE.
NDS too!
http://dslinux.org/
Good call Alanna.
The buffalo linkstation runs on Linux. By default, the command line isn’t accessible, but with a firware flash, you can have a full debian install and do anything you want with it. I have one and verified this works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_network-attached_storage_series
What about pendrivelinux? Thats one of my favorites!
you forgot the netslug!
http://www.nslu2-linux.org
Thanks for the list.
[…] power of Linux, or the Web browser, and build something on top of it. As a result, Linux has been adapted to run on some toasters, while Windows still runs only on a particular x86 architecture. If the open source model was […]