Boeing 777 - The Linux Penguin Lives
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Interesting how much Linux has made in roads into our lives. It seems that some of the aairlines who use the Boeing 777 are using Linux as their entertainment center. Seems that each seat on the 777 has a built in screen so the passengers can choose different movies, music or other forms of entertainment. One of the bloggers over at Intel, Nathan Zeldas, stated that on a recent flight he spotted the Penguin:
So, I’m heading home from the US, and I fly on this Boeing 777, which is a really well-designed plane. Each seat has this touch screen in front, and every passenger can select from dozens of movies and shows, and view them at any time, in any order, with freeze, rewind and FF controls. With hundreds of passengers, this implies a central hard disk based video system of awesome proportions. Neat!
So guess what happens halfway across the Atlantic?
The flight attendant declares on the PA system that she’s sorry, some folks aren’t getting the video right, and she has to stop and restart the system. Yes, you got it: she has to do a reboot. The movie disappears, and every screen on the plane shows scrolling lines of techie text, as the system is loading this and initializing that. And at the top, what do you know? The cute little penguin, Tux. Hundreds of penguins, one per seat. This jetliner is running Linux!
Whoever said penguins can’t fly?…
So it is good to see that the TUX penguin is alive and well and that some of the airlines have chosen Linux to run their entertainment centers.
Have you seen the Penguin in any other applications? Let us know.
Comments welcome.
Intel blog by Nathan Zeldas here.
[tags]boeing, 777, linux, entertainment, center, [/tags]
4 Comments
hnmm
May 19th, 2007
at 10:10am
Its not the airlines choosing Linux to run their entertainment systems. I mean it not like their unix admin climbs aboard each plane and inserts a Ubuntu CD into one of the computers in the avionics cabinet. Its most likey all the airline was doing was buying a entertainment system and has no idea whats under the hood nor do they care. All they would care is if it provides the functionality and its reliable etc. Having said that its good to hear various embedded system developers adopting linux -SDF
Ron Schenone
May 19th, 2007
at 10:16am
Agree- it is good news.
Thanks for your comment. Ron
Paul M
November 16th, 2007
at 5:26pm
I managed to crash my in-seat entertainment console on an NWA flight from Phoenix to London, and it locked solid for 30s, then rebooted, showing the little penguin icon top left, and the distinctive console text output before the graphical UI appeared. It was very quick to start, I could easily have missed it.
The NWA system implied it came from Panasonic, or at least the corporate advertising about it said Panasonic!
Ron Schenone
November 17th, 2007
at 5:48am
Hi Paul M,
Good to hear that the Penguin is alive and well on NWA.
Regards, Ron