digg

One of the most popular linux articles last year on digg
http://www.zyra.org.uk/os-air.htm
Thank god.. there using Linux =D

Can you send out a plane-wide invitation out to join the mile high club?

Yet another connection between linux and virgins. Coincidence?

I loved my flight on Virgin America, but it's still fairly new I think. I felt comfortable in my seat, but the remote control thing in my seat was broken, so I couldn't play games or etc. Also, in my two hour flight, the system crashed like twice, so I actually didn't have much time to toy with it. I heard maybe like four songs and saw a segment of a paintballing match. (The channel changing was like frozen or something)
Virgin America is awesome, but it still has a way to go for it's entertainment system.

Delta's in flight entertainment systems use Linux as well

I flew with them cross country and impressed the hell out of me. Clean cabin, nice seats, cheap price-
the entertainment system was really just a bonus, I never had it crash on me, but it does tend to be slow when you're running the satellite TV and the google maps program at the same time.

its a plane, its superman!, no!... its a penguin!!!! high five, and props. this is one plane I want to go on.

good

awesome... let me go get my BFG9000

I certainly hope every Virgin airliner's interior isn't ***** pink.

It isn't 149 separate units....

149 "boxes", eh?
More accurately would be "a few" boxes with many screens... While I certainly like flying VA and their entertainment system is fun, it is horribly dated and plagued by problems.

It's actually during those (somewhat often) reboots that you can clearly see that the plane is, at least the 4 I've been on, divided up in sections for the entertainment system. I'd estimate about ~30 seats per 'section' that all reboot at the same time. You can get a pretty good look at the booting screen and notice that your seat isn't tty1.

I have nothing against VA; I'd fly them again in a heartbeat, however the entertainment system has nothing to do with my choice (whereas seat comfort, low price and power at the seat are my deciding factors.)

Not that this is relevant, but I found out that Delta uses Red Hat on it's international flights during a flight from Dominican Republic to NYC. My terminal kept crashing and rebooting during Texas Hold 'Em...

Flight Plan I knew that was real . All those big Servers on the Plane.

If every passenger gets a bash shell, then I'll be impressed. Otherwise it really doesn't matter what OS is running under a proprietary interface.

Thats actually a fantastic idea.

In flight chat is a marketing dream:

"Hey, where is there a good place to eat?"
"Whats fun to do"
"Any parties happening"
"where can I buy...."

Also, you have a captive audience. Imagine the commercials you can display.

Lastly, best of all, its Linux and costs are low.

Good business move.

Wow long was it in testing?

systems use Linux as well

Delta has the same system and I thought it was funny the last two times I flew they had to reboot it.

Any day now we are going to hear about the new Planebuntu. distribution targeted at airlines.

When I fly, I'm more concerned with getting from point A to point B in one piece. Anything else is just an added bonus.

But can it run crysis? (I promise I'll never say that again.)

Why when is comes to demonstrating linux they show a port of Doom playing, just like on the iphone and on the original ipod linux project... Great game though :P

They were on my flight to China, the damned things were stuck in an infinate reboot loop, they would load into the media player, crash and start over, if they function one has the ability to power it off, but in this loop we kept getting a flashing light every few seconds and everyone on the flight just wanted to smash the little ***** so we could sleep. Was not a proud linux moment.

Having a blue screen of death on a plane would scare me, lucky they didn't pick windows

I've been on several planes with in-flight entertainment systems running Linux. They've occasionally had to reboot them- and I get a kick out of watching the Linux kernel boot. I was on a Lufthansa flight 3 years ago, and after someone complained about a black box under the seat blocking him from putting an excessively large bag underneath- the flight attendant told him each screen has it's own computer under the seat. They use a server to stream the content out to individual computers that display it. It's great- because it allows for interactive games (trivia) and individualized pay-per-view movies. So- in short- nothing really remarkable here. I do LOVE to see Linux in wide-spread use like this.

Starting out, they only put linux on 3% of their planes, it's just that all the windows planes have crashed. Same old same old.

Only disappointing thing about VA's Red is that you can't network DOOM :(

From my last plane trip (2005), Air canada's tv systems ran on linux. Mine crashed, so they had to reset it. No, I'm not bashing on linux.

Since when was doom ported to linux?

There was an offer by Microsoft for an airline version of SYNC, but it was declined since the average passenger associates what's on the screen with air safety: http://daimyo.org/_detail/bsod/bsod_termini.jpg?id ...

All you kids get so giddy of linux. I have been working for Panasonic for awhile now and all our IFE run on linux, which are on most airlines today. We recently ported Firefox to run on the handheld PMP. Just another day in the life of open software.

geez. now if only VA had flights that actually left my city...

system is nice but the game selection sucks: doom, texttwist, and a bunch of ***** puzzle games - it's like those touch screen games they have in bars.

the "read" and "shop" functions aren't up yet.

seat to seat chat is cool cuz u can have tv and a chat up at the same time, but kinda pointless since u sit next to ur friends anyway.

the food is small selection but u just swipe ur card and they bring it right away. plus all the non-booze drinks are free.

it has a bunch of on demand tv and shows but they all cost money.

it has fully functioning google maps which is sweet.

Eva Air run Linux on in-flight entertainment - saw Tux during a reboot. It worked OK for me. BTW it should read "Linux Boxen" to be truly geek.

Delta has similar. Redhat powers their in flight entertainment. It kernel panicked mid flight

"CG: Why did you pick linux for RED?

CO: Linux is very stable and agile. We were able to pare down the embedded seat-back side to only the libraries we need, license a container app and then write the code needed to tie everything together "

But really... "CO: We couldn't afford Mac OS X :( "

i thought i remember adam curry podcasting about how Virgin Airline in Europe used a Windows-based media system a few years back.

if only branson was still in charge of virgin records.......

their decision to not release any albums from new artists in 2008 is rediculous. they just guaranteed that any new bands they signed in the last year will have to break up and join other bands so they can pay their bills.

Virgin America's economy class seats are 19.5" by the way, almost 2.5" wider than most normal budget airliners. Doesn't seem like much, but that is business class territory.

Would be great if you could play FPS like Wolfenstein Enemy Territory against other passengers. That would certainly fill 8 hours.
Even frozen bubble against other passengers would kill a few hours.

Another area America lacks innovation.

If they aren't thin-clients connected to a dual quad core machine via XDMCP, they are wasting some serious ***** money.

Yawn. Most all the in-flight systems are linux. Have been for quite some time.