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LINUX on a POTATO


Admiral Refuge
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Is this real?

_Amsterdam, Netherlands – Hackers from the LinuxOnAnything.nl Web site successfully installed Linux on a potato. It's the first time the operating system has been successfully installed on a root vegetable.

Linux Potato“A potato doesn't have a CPU, memory or storage space, so it was quite a challenge,” said Johan Piest of the Linux on Anything (LOA) group. “Obviously we couldn't use a large distribution like Fedora or Ubuntu, so we went with Damn Small Linux.”

After weeks of trying the group got a Linux kernel specially modified for a potato loaded, and were able to edit a small text file in vi. Linux was loaded onto the potato using a USB thumb drive and commands were sent in binary to the potato using a set of red and black wires._
Continued: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/12/linux-on-a-potato.html

The article also said they've installed linux on a…. Shetland pony?
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@Xavi:

> wtf? Pictures pl0x…

They have a picture when you click the link (as well as the rest of the article).

Someone on digg said this:

> A potato, due to the high amounts of liquid it contains, as well as the starchy membranes it has, can actually hold a small amount of data. You've seen the potatoes used as batteries and things like, that right? It's the same principle.
>
> By attaching the USB drive, and then using eletrical signals (Red is commonly used to denote "1" and Black is commonly used to denote "0") they were able to access the drive and install Linux.
>
> I imagine that it would take several hours of 0's and 1's though.

Though, I still don't know if it's real or not.
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It does seem like a joke; it's the Shetland pony part that's thrown me off the most.

I'm currently tracking down the guys that supposedly done this, so we'll see just how real it is.  If it was possible though, it'd be the single-most epic thing I've ever seen (it beats out the guy that installed linux on his toaster).
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@♪♫♪:

> Eh, I doubt its validity. I was reading the other articles on there and they're pure bleh. Unless this just happened to be a story of interest to the author that is actually true, I doubt it.
>
> Need to find a more reliable source.

Yea, I'm pretty sure the article itself is a joke, looking further into that website and digging deeper; "Johan Piest", the guy they said led the team, is actually a comedian in the netherlands.

Though, the concept itself is intriguing to me, and if a processor was introduced to the potato (I can't believe I'm saying this!), it _could_ be possible; atleast in theory.
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