Penguin Car Earns Indy500 Spot

strredwolf writes "Despite generating over $12K in funds, well short of the $250K goal, the Tux 500 Project was able to secure a spot in the Indy 500 with driver Roberto Moreno piloting the Linux #77 Indy car. He's back in the pack in 31st place (only 5.5 MPH separates 31st place from 1st) but was able to secure it by re-qualifying with an average speed of 220.299 MPH. Will Moreno be able to pilot the penguin-tipped Indy car to victory next week at the 91st Indianapolis 500?"

Comments

Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot.

[sheldon]

Rednecks? Indianapolis 500? Rednecks?

Do you understand the difference between Indy 500 and Nascar? Most of the people I know, such as myself, who watch the Indy 500 are engineers.

Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot.

[LocoMan]

There are several different levels of underdevelopment.

There are LOTS of places where I agree with you that technology won't help much if simpler problems aren't solved first... but there are also lots of places where access to food, clean water and medicine is at least good enough to live (I can think of quite a few here in Venezuela for example), and where access to technology and education would make a big difference.

Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot.

[The Great Pretender]

"If you really want to help 3rd world countries, stop thinking tech. Start thinking about simple things like how to get food, water, and medicine into these places"

But don't you think that 'tech' helps/allows the 'simple things' to happen?

Why advertise something that isn't ready?

[tolldog]

I love linux, using it daily. But why are we advertising a product that won't work for a lot of people who are watching the race. Most people advertise things people can go out, buy and use right now.

I have been using linux since slack on floppies and it has come a long way. But for the average consumer, it still needs work. Instead of 12k going to a bumper sticker on a car moving way too fast to read, why not put that money in projects that helps mature parts of linux. Lets get some working wifi broadcom drivers, being able to only connect at 11 mbs to an unencrypted network, its not fully finished. The people on those projects need funding. If you want people to switch, how about throwing that 12k towards the wine project? People won't give up old applications just like that. When ever you have to say "It's just like X, but..." then the project still needs work to replace the alternative.

That 12k could have gone a long way to several projects. The proposed 250k could have gone even further. When I can install linux on any of my laptops or desktops and be able to work and play like I do under Windows and Mac OSX, then it is time to advertise to the masses.