Penguin Airlines

An anonymous reader writes "DesktopLinux.com interviews Chris Stevens, President of Penguin Airlines about his young venture's business model that includes using Linux in all aspects from the ground up -- from desktops to the reservations system! 'Tux' is more than just a name for this new air taxi service which brings convenient, economical, time-saving air travel via the shortest route between home and destination." They wrote an essay about their business plans, and their heavily computerized jets look nifty as well. CD:Those interested in the aviation side of things should check out James Fallows book "Free Flight" as well.

Comments

Hate to be obvious...

[dagoalieman]

But Penguins don't fly....

I hope they have better luck than the real birds.

Re:Hate to be obvious...

[Kenja]

Penguins, like pigs, in fact can fly. It's just a matter of applying enough force. I recommend a tin foil jacket and a gause gun.

Re:Hate to be obvious...

[JFMulder]

Anything can fly, you just have to forget you're falling...

Re:Hate to be obvious...

[grazzy]

I'm the CEO of a newly founded company called "BSOD Airlines", in answear to the parent post, yes we do infact run Windows 95 on every machine we have - from black boxes (which are very black btw) to control systems.

Yes, Bill Gates DOES fly for free.

Get it out of the way

[GoodWebDesigns]

Upside: An airline that never crashes. Downside: Who wants uptimes that last for months?

Re:Get it out of the way

[unicron]

The upside: Perfect flying record.

The downside: Takes a team of 4 people reading faqs for 2 hours just to figure out how to get the damn landing gear to retract.

Re:Get it out of the way

[realdpk]

Only to then find out that Linus has deemed the previous method for retracting landing gear "inefficient" and that you'll be lucky if it works at all. There'll be a new way to do it. If you're lucky, you'll run across this obscure e-mail somewhere on Google.

Re:Get it out of the way

[unicron]

I would be worried about the level of customer service for the airline:

Passenger: Stewaress, can I get some peanuts?

Stewardess: Get em yourself, fucking newb. Can you believe this little bitch? Thinking he has skills.

Re:Get it out of the way

[Micah]

or she could just refer him to the Peanut-HOWTO.html

Re:Get it out of the way

[sharkey]

RTFPM - Read The Fucking Peanut Manual

Using Linux in all aspects from the ground up ...

[Anonvmous Coward]

You know what that means: All of the Customer Service Agents will have to be able to type 160 words per minute to keep up!

Not the analogy I would've used

[theRhinoceros]

The airlines like to use majestic bird names like Eagle and Falcon that convey a powerful animal soaring gracefully through the air. Since one of our fundamental missions is to make private jet travel affordable for all travelers, we needed something that most people could relate to.

So, instead of a large bird majestically soaring through the air, the chose a name of a... dumpy, flightless bird that spends most of its time in the water. Hmm...

To the non-linux savvy, the choice of imagery to represent the company is perhaps less than ideal. I mean, how's about starting with a bird that actually flies through the air?

Re:Not the analogy I would've used

[jazman_777]

I mean, how's about starting with a bird that actually flies through the air?

First bird that came to my mind: Turkey Buzzard.

Windows..

[Mir322]

Will it be possible to get a seat by the window ? Or will they offer economy command line flights... the jets being much faster and streamlined after all ;)

Flying Penguins

[T-Kir]

So if a Pengiun Airlines jet does a fly over of a fleet of parked Penguin Airlines planes, will the planes all fall backwards in unison??

BBC link - old news

Re:Using Linux in all aspects from the ground up .

[NanoGator]

Lol!

"What's the command to change this guy's reservation?"

"It's 'chgres -x -p#30240 -usrname=John Doe -t12:00 -tx13:35 -fn usa412."

"Oh... Didn't realize that command had a vowel in it."

Re:sounds like a joke to me!

[NanoGator]

"Linux controlling our skies? Might as well stop all airborne travel."

I wouldn't go that far, but you would need to know Bernoulli's Law to board the plane.

Re:And why does the Linux matter?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Q: how do you fuck an airplane?

Re:Using Linux in all aspects from the ground up .

[Wee]

"It's 'chgres -x -p#30240 -usrname=John Doe -t12:00 -tx13:35 -fn usa412."

I don't mean to be pedantic, but you probably ought to quote the username. The shell will think it's another arg otherwise. So you'd change his reservation like so:

chgres -x -p 30240 -usrname 'John Doe' -t 12:00 -tx 13:35 -fn usa412

Yes, I realize you were joking.

-B

Oops....

[r_j_prahad]

All flights are temporarily grounded due to a severe slashdotting. You may move about the cabin until the disturbance subsides, but please refrain from smoking. Thank you.

Re:And why does the Linux matter?!

[T3kno]

You spend way too much time on /. and IRC when the muscle memory in your fingers types out fucking as the default word.

Odd Schedule

[Tablizer]

Hmmm. They only sell one-way tickets *out* of Redmond WA.

Quote from their jet brochure

[guttentag]

The Eclipse 500 is constructed principally of aircraft aluminum.

That's good to know. I hate it when airlines use jets constructed principally of coke-can aluminum. And the aluminum siding planes are just annoying when one end of a plank breaks loose and starts thwacking against the side of the plane. These guys show real promise.

A paranoiac writes: Finally!!

[The_Guv'na]

An airline where I don't have to wear my tinfoil hat!

Do you people have ANY IDEA of the shit I've had to put up with gettin that thing onboard normal airlines?

Ali [the dark side]

Flight problem

[Tablizer]

I couldn't get up to stretch and shmooze because the overhead "No Trolling" light was on the entire fricken time!

Next time I'll take Blue Skies of D (BSOD) Airways, a subsidiary of MS. (They wouldn't tell me what the 'D' stood for.)

Big Mistake

[Tablizer]

You got it all wrong: "Penguin" in the name has nothing to do with Linux, but what they serve for meals. I learned that after taking "Dogways Airlines".

Re:You guys are missing the point

[Trickster Coyote]

I suppose it's groundbreaking for an airline

I must say, seeing the words "groundbreaking" and "airline" together in the same sentence mad me a tad nervous.