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IBM Using iPod to boot Linux on PCs

Posted by Hemos on from the cool-tech dept.

Applejack writes "Looks like iPod fever has caught on to Big Blue. IBM has a yet unreleased iPod-based software for rescue, restore, and recovery of failed Windows PCs. I read this description of the software on Amit Singh's blog, whose group at IBM apparently created this stuff. If I understand this correctly (and I think I do), the iPod contains IBM's rescue software along with Linux. A crashed PC boots into Linux from the iPod, after which you get all kinds of rescue & restore functionality ... web browsing and all, even if the PC's drive is totally hosed. All this while the iPod keeps working normally as a music player as it would. The blog has pointers to further information, including a Windows Media demo of the thing. " Should be noted this is not iPod specific; USB devices will do.

24 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. No, Really? by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Recovery tools? On an external hardrive of some sort? What will they think of next?!

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    1. Re:No, Really? by Kenja · · Score: 3, Funny

      Next they'll start using shinny discs with microscopic pock marks that are "readable" with a high focus laser diod. Naw, thats the stuff of science fiction.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    2. Re:No, Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Are the diods shinny too?

    3. Re:No, Really? by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Funny

      Some sort of keyboard/display arrangement, and emacs on the ipod.
      But what sort of music would be suitable for the RMS ad campaign? The Residents?
      They have eyes, you know. ;)

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    4. Re:No, Really? by telstar · · Score: 4, Funny
      "Why not use a regular USB drive? It's still much less expensive than an iPod."
      • 'cause it wouldn't get written up on Slashdot. Duh!

  2. Hello Help Desk by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and then I deleted all that other stuff to make more room for my iTunes purchases, and now my system won't recover.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
    1. Re:Hello Help Desk by pilgrim23 · · Score: 5, Funny

      With the new color iPods you can even display a Blue screen so Microsoft addicts can feel right at home....

      --
      - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  3. OOOOHHHH LOOK AT ME!!! by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm using my $699 iPod as a substitue for a $0.10 Knoppix liveCD!!!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:OOOOHHHH LOOK AT ME!!! by catch23 · · Score: 5, Funny

      $699 iPod? Did you pay for the SCO license?

  4. hmmm... by thirteenVA · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is there anything the iPod can't do? ;)

    1. Re:hmmm... by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2, Funny

      You clearly haven't seen the new attachments from Belkin...

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  5. Ipod = Tricorder? by RonUSMC · · Score: 1, Funny

    Is it just me or is the iPod becoming more and more like a Tricorder every day. (The small do-everything-device used in Star Trek)

    1. Re:Ipod = Tricorder? by Maqueo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is it just me or is the iPod becoming more and more like a Tricorder every day. (The small do-everything-device used in Star Trek)

      Dude, no need to explain what a tricorder is around here ok?

      You must be new here ;)

  6. Recipe for front page news on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Take any generic news item
    2. Try to work the iPod into the story, no matter how forced
    3. Front page!

  7. Slashdot grammar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    I read this description of the software on Amit Singh's blog, who's group at IBM apparently created this stuff.

    He is "group at IBM apparently created this stuff"???

    That's a very long adjective!

  8. very cool by helix_r · · Score: 4, Funny

    ....
    All this while the iPod keeps working normally as a music player as it would. ...

    Awesome!

    Now sysadmins can listen to chill-out music while repairing mission-critical workstations!

  9. Oh the irony... by Master_T · · Score: 5, Funny
    Microsoft machines repaired by apple hardware using linux.

    Thank you steve jobs for your magical machine of reconciliation. Do you think we could use IPODs to achieve peace in the mideast?

    1. Re:Oh the irony... by kafka93 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, that wouldn't be ironic.

  10. No, I'm New Here by New+Here · · Score: 0, Funny

    No, I'm New Here

  11. Thanks for the idea by phorm · · Score: 5, Funny

    Purchase Request

    Item Name: Apple iPod

    Description: To be used as an external bootable storage device for diagnosing and recovering PC's with failed hard-disks.


    Hmmm, wonder if the boss would go for it...

  12. More "innovation".. by The+Wookie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not to be outdone, Microsoft is reportedly working on a way to crash and iPod when Windows crashes.

  13. Come on editors... by Anti+Frozt · · Score: 4, Funny

    "IBM has a yet unreleased iPod-based software for rescue, restore, and recovery of failed Windows PCs."

    So IBM has not unreleased this software. I know that delays are inevitable in development, but actually moving backwards through time. This puts Duke Nukem Forever to shame.

    --
    In C++, friends can touch each others private parts.
  14. Re:Ultimate Boot CD by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Funny

    But does it come with white earphones and a gallon of instant cool?

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  15. This just in. by SomeOtherGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was a windy day and I had a stack of papers that I wanted to sit down on the bench next to me....There were no rocks in site.

    I made an awesome discovery. It just hit me. I could use my iPod layed at just the right angle on top of those papers to keep them from blowing away.

    I had done it -- I had invented the first paper weight that could also play music. How did we all survive before iPods. This damn swiss army knife in my back pocket seems so useless now.

    --
    (+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.