More on Toronto's Linux-only Computer Store

bluethundr writes "The Register today is running a story about what we first thought (but thought incorrectly as it turns out) to be the world's first Linux-only computer store. Who knew that they were also running a Linux-powered car wash in the back? Heh."

Comments

Dare it be possible...

[Anonymous Coward]

I had several seizures during the slashdot blackout.... I actually went outside....there was all of this green stuff on the ground, first I thought they were sprites, but they were to photorealistic....It was scary......I am NEVER going back to that tepid land again!

Re:Dare it be possible...

[djcapelis]

Reminds me of the time I looked at the moon and was surprised at how unpixelated the edges were.

Re:Dare it be possible...

[Anonymous Coward]

.... I actually went outside....

Hmm..?
Oh, where the pizza man comes from? Yeah I've seen that too.

Re:Dare it be possible...

[Afrosheen]

Dude, it's been like that for a long time. Aren't you familiar with Quincunx and 4XAA settings on your video drivers?

Re:Dare it be possible...

[Epistax]

There's one thing in reality that I find very unrealistic, and I don't like it when I see it in games either. If you walk by something like a white picket fence and the fence branches off at a 90 degree angle perpendicular to the direction you are walking, then if you look through the fence at the other fence you'll get this sickly effect: Every few steps the fence will appear to be a solid wall in places as the holes in the front fence will match the fence in the second. For a moment you'll see something that looks like a glitch
This works with most kinds of fences. When you're head is in exactly the right place the fences overlap in the precise way to maximize obstruction. To the eye it looks just like a fence pixelating. It's especially bad when you're just the right distance from the fence such that the area when this happens is a couple inches. This makes it to bobbing your head back and forth will completely remove the effect, and completely introduce it-- looking completely like a glitch.

I'm not alone, right? :-P

Re:Dare it be possible...

[ndavidg]

And while you were bobbing your head back and forth and looking to the right like if you were one of Jerry's kids, the girl of your dreams just passed you on the left wearing a skimpy tank-top and short shorts.

Free carwash?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't they have to give everyone free car washes under the terms of GPL?

Re:Free carwash?

[psyco484]

No, I think they only need to hand a sponge and a bucket of soapy water to anyone who asks for it.

Re:Free carwash?

[britneys 9th husband]

No, but they have to give you the blueprints to the carwash so you can go home and build your own carwash and tweak it so it's optimized for your car.

Of course, building your own carwash is a lot of work, and a lot of homeowner's associations seem to have a problem with people putting up noisy carwashes in the back yard for some reason, so most people just go to RedHat Car Wash because it's a lot easier.

Before long, SCO will claim all car washes use their intellectual property and will start suing all the big oil companies for infringing on their patents with all the car washes they have at their gas stations.

Re:Free carwash?

[Joe Enduser]

...and then tell them to Wash The Fucking Car

:p

perfect, just what I needed

[agwis]

I can't believe how many times I've been getting my car washed and thought "boy, I sure wish I could buy a computer while I wait"!

If this business model becomes successful, I'm going to start my own. Look for a 'Pats Donuts and Computer Repair Shop' coming soon :P

-Pat

Re:perfect, just what I needed

[slamb]

If this business model becomes successful, I'm going to start my own. Look for a 'Pats Donuts and Computer Repair Shop' coming soon :P

Be sure to use the apostrophe correctly, as in:

Pats Donut's and Computer Repair Shop

bye bye karma

[Anonymous Coward]

So what? I'm sure DOS could run a carwash.

Re:bye bye karma

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but you couldn't fix the bugs yourself after it "tunes" your car's body and "themes" your paint job.

Linux "powered"?

[Blaede]

You mean these people have somehow found a way of not having to use electricity to operate electrical-mechanical devices? Is there some hidden potential energy in a disk of Red Hat? Should AnandTech be doing a review to see which distro has the best energy loss ratio?

Re:Linux "powered"?

[Idarubicin]

Is there some hidden potential energy in a disk of Red Hat? Should AnandTech be doing a review to see which distro has the best energy loss ratio?

Sure. There's an absolutely incredible amount of potential energy in a Red Hat disc. To harness this energy, you will require:

one Red Hat CD;
a large industrial boiler unit;
one steam turbine;
a very long pair of tongs;
one lead apron; and
one antimatter Red Hat CD.

All Linux distros seem to store roughly the same amount of energy--probably due to the common kernel code. I have not reviewed BSD products at this point, though I may investigate them after I find my eyebrows.

Re:Some thoughts.....

[spacefrog]

I threw my younger sister into SuSE and Yast and she had a decent handle on things (Mind you, she's no geek but quite trendy, so a shock indeed :)

Sooooooooo......Being slashdot....Tell us more about this Linux-using sister of yours??!?

A job half done

[Coupons]

"...also running a Linux-powered car wash..."

Fine, but they don't do windows.

Re:its quites sad..

[arvindn]

That's OK. After all, cars and vans are more than twice the size of Linux computers.

Soon to go out of business...

[Thaidog]

...beacuse everythings free!

That would be a damn fun store to shop at... just grab something and run out the door... if caught just tell them it's Linux!

Carwash caveats

[gad_zuki!]

The upside is that its free, but takes 18 hours of tweaking to actually clean your specific model the first time. If you have an import or a rare car, it might not clean it at all.

There's a slim chance your car wont start after the wash, leaving all your gauges at 16, 16, 16, 16, 16...

Your "Save the Whales" bumper sticker might be replaced with a "Save the Pengiuns" sticker or a photo of a fat guy in front of a computer will be appended to your original bumper sticker.

Pasty employees will snort at your aftermarket body effects and graphics, unless they are glowing then they will tell you how 'l33T they are.

Conversely, the very same pasty employees will give you the weakest high-five you have ever experienced if you have made any modifications to your onboard computer or stereo system.

After the wash your car will not be able to share a lane with any car registered in Washington state.

Your mileage will increase but for some inexplicable reason you'll have to learn how to drive stick as your automatic will cease to exist.

Re:Something tells me...

[Anonymous Coward]

I figure thats because its using SOAP?

Re:its quites sad..

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a carwash?

Re:Interesting

[Radar|TGS]

Maybe they feel that while it's fine for the desktop, Linux just isn't ready for production servers?