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Well yes, they do tend to whiff a bit when they're dead

Actually, these guys saw what I did with Windows and copied it!

I dunno. Linux zombies of the badger variety have been around for some time ;-)

No, but I did find a dead badger HOWTO. Maybe you could try substituting the nephew for the badger.

You run Windows Vista on your kid?! Not even Linux users would do that! :P

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

Only if he's dead

You know, I'm a little upset that NetBSD never quite caught up with Linux: did anyone finally port NetBSD to a dead badger?

Don't worry, if there is some sort of massive disaster and electricity vanishes, we can still run Linux.

We don't need no steeenking badgers!

Just this weekend, I installed linux on a dead badger I found on the road. I had to get several badgers before I finally corrected all my kernal panics, but eventually it worked. All REAL Linux gurus need a dead badger running Linux around. Now, if I could only find drivers for the new printer I installed...

Work on this is actively being done.
There's been quite some success in lower mammals:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

Dead Badgers.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

An oldie but goodie: Installing Linux on a dead badger can create its own particular brand of difficulties.

Why stop at a wrist watch?

I run linux on my Zipit Wireless Messenger, on a cluster of twenty old ibm thin clients, my laptop, and two servers -- and of course my old dead pet badger.

Windows CANNOT claim the same flexibility. WindowsCE may [may] come close, but for a truly minimal footprint, you're forced back to DOS.

Regarding aging equpiment, the situation is simply put: linux makes old hardware useful again.

so microsoft is saying that now windows can also run on a dead badger???

Apparently, you can install Linux on a dead badger. I tried it, but it was total pain in the neck to get the keyboard drivers. I ended up having to modify the keyboard drivers that I found in the gopher repository. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

Privacy is reduced to bare minimum, for example, making it customary to subject yourself to a mind-read in order to prove your good intentions. I'm posting this here because the book contains detailed justifications why the society evolved in this direction, and then explores problems with this system.

Very interesting read for those interested in "philosophical sociology".

Does NetBSD run on a dead badger?

I mean seriously ... why not put Linux on the XBox? If there are some hackers out there that get their rocks off porting Linux to everything from new architectures to dead badgers, then more power to them if they want to tackle the X360, too. And IMO it'd be pretty damn cool to have 1) the power and 2) the form-factor in a general-purpose box.

You're not a shaman until you've installed Linux on your zombie badger.

Why do people always review the install? I mean seriously, who gives a shit. I haven't heard anyone complaining about an install since 2000, and even in 1998 it really wasn't that hard with some documentation scribbled on a napkin. There's even a howto for installing linux on the carcass of a dead badger.

Microsoft isn't pushing their OS for its easy install. You never hear about OS X's install.

Why is linux judged by it's ease of install!? Who gives a flying rats ass. Does it work after it's installed? Probably not every well.

Want to read more free/cheap sci-fi and fantasy?

Strange Horizons - a weekly e-magazine, donation-supported.

Futurismic - a monthly e-magazine (focused on futuristic stories and articles about future technology), also donation-supported.

I've been reading both of these for a few months now, and the stories are great! I'm planning to donate in their fund drives, because I think the quality is superb.

No, but you can run linux on a dead badger

Given that you can install Linux on a dead badger... I'm afraid the answer to your question is a resounding negative.

Geez. Don't forget to add a KLAATU BARADA NIKTO at the end to awaken the dead.

Don't you mean "Suse vivo vixi victum reduco is ea id creatura absit decessus a facultas Linux! Dev root, dev root!"?

Suprisingly balanced for microsoft. I'd have expected them to install Linux on a dead badger and compare it to some system with 3.0 ghz and 4 gigs of ram. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

You can also install it on a dead badger.

TBH though, I don't see the hype. So, it runs Linux, and does absolutely nothing useful. Big freaking deal. Lots of geek points, yes, but minus several million engineer points in the practicality department?

Those programs run on Windows, too, but I don't think it's ready for enterprise-class server applications, either. Just because you can run them doesn't mean you should.

Both Apple and Linux serve niche markets, but they're largely different niche markets.

Apple sells expensive but proven and well-integrated hardware. Apple users generally don't want to get into the guts of their system and mess around with it. The Apple mantra is having a system that just works. It's all about the experience and the ease-of-use.

Linux is a tinkerer's OS. It's designed to run on everything from the latest 3.6GHz monster rig to a simple embedded device to a dead badger. It isn't particularly easy to use, but it's very powerful and very customizable.

There's only some overlap between Apple and Linux, and if anything, the switch to Intel will aid Linux. Not having to worry about architectural issues will make it easier to share UNIX-based software between Mac OS X and other UNIX-like systems.

If anything, I bet we'll see people do what's already being done - using Apple's excellent hardware to do Linux development - which will be even easier than before when Apple switches to an Intel-based architecture.

Yes! Then you can create your army of genetically superior copies of yourself with nothing but a dead badger!

It's been done

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

Well, I knew Linux will run on a badger and that NetBSD will run on a toaster, but a Cat? Bravo, Theo, you've done it again!

Humm, no : it has been done

China Miéville is his real name. Interview: The name, he says, is a result of having hippie parents.

Interesting, but will it work on a dead badger running GNU/Linux? Cause thats where do all my development work.

a toaster

What about the dead badger

Aha! See my idea is to install Linux on a dead badger, I seriously doubt anyone has attempted that.

Think again.

If you want to know what happens to the socks, read this.

The google theory about Joe sixpack being overloaded is valid. Having heard how great linux from the tech-friend who said we could just download and install it, we google for "download linux". The first link http://www.linuxiso.org/ smacks us with 15 different distros upfront, although it does offer an Introduction to Linux, which plays agnostic when the noob question "Which Distribution Is The Best?" is asked. The second link http://www.linux.org/dist/download_info.html gets us to a page that has an over of how to download a linux distro, and a link to a distributions page that even after we fill in English / Live CD / Intel Based Architecture, we get 59 distributions.

Assuming Joe downloads a good distribution (most of them are good for his purposes but HE DOESN'T KNOW THAT) he decides to google for "install linux" and gets back to http://www.linux.org/docs/beginner/install.html which mentions a few distros (is SuSE a 12 year old girl with bad spelling?) and refers to distro specific instructions via an Install Guide circa 1998 before going straight into red-hat specific instructions. The second google link is Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, which Joe decides would be easier to do than install it on his "dude you got a dell".

Bottom line, unless you hand Mr. 6-pack a Live-CD with a simple hard-drive install option (auto-repartition, auto-detect network and video), he is most likely not going to be able to download, burn, boot and install "linux".

Unbadged? I don't see what's wrong with badged, my Linux system is badged.

Your design is a variant of a device I've heard called the Forward Slingshot some links. Which I first heard described by Robert L. Forward. Congrats are in order for co-inventing and possibly improving upon such an original concept.

I also feel that this is one of the most practical means of getting things into orbit.

An alternative means of powering the slingshot is to deliver mass (cargo) down the energy well, though you'll have to deliver enough cargo to overcome the cost of raising the next outbound payload along with all of the air friction losses on both transfers. If you're taking apart a second asteroid for raw materials, however, you'll probalby be able to find enough mass to make this practical (and it radically increases the safety of deorbiting the inbound payload, helping the practicality of that enterprise as well). A third advantage of this approach is improved stabilization of the tether during the descent phase.

Regards,
Ross

But getting it installed is a real pain in the ass:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badge r.shtml

Now where did I leave that reanimation scroll...?

Over here!

Perhaps you should look into Installing Linux on a dead Badger, though you may have some trouble with dependencies.

The "Stories We See Too Often" list referenced in the article can be found at this link.

Whenever I see stories like this I am reminded of Installing Linux on a Dead Badger.

After all, he seems to nbe labouring under the misapprehension that he's a real journalist and a decent human being.

You do it because OSX won't install on a dead badger.