[SGVLUG] Chumby is Linux-based

Mon Aug 11 11:59:14 PDT 2008

> -----Original Message----- Of John E. Kreznar
> 
> I had never heard of a "Chumby" before opening the current LA 
> Weekly. It caught my eye because reading a couple random 
> snippets in the two-page spread immediately made me wonder -- 
> could this thing be running Linux?  Well, I didn't have to 
> read much further:
> 
>    Duane, VP of software development, writes ... "the system is locked
>    down pretty tight -- first off, by being a Linux-based system;
>    secondly by using unmodifiable, read-only file systems; and thirdly
>    by using a sandboxed virtual machine for our application layer."
>    ... The device is open-source, which means that anyone can write
>    software for it.
[...]

Well, John, I hadn't even heard of a "chumby" until your post -- which
of course interested me enough to look it up.  Also, knowing your
general outlook on things comuter-based [and your self-problaimed lack
of a sense of humor], I was curious as to why you posted this -- my
first guess was to resolve the internal conflict about putting the words
"locked down pretty tight" and "first by being a linux-based system" in
the same sentence.  You are very vocal that things in general (and
computers in particular) should be as "open" as possible, and "locked
down" often implies a closed system.

Though I suspect here this is in the context of being "locked down" from
a security standpoint.  Owners of the boxes can, of course, modify
things to their heart's content [see the wiki pages; in particular there
are quite a few hacks based on specifically-named files being present on
a USB thumb-drive when the system is powered on]  Though I don't know if
that also means you can write your changes to the system back to the
device as a whole (due to the "read-only" filesystem -- can it be
re-mounted as read/write, or is that truly "locked down" here?)

So I'm still a little confused -- are you "singing the praises" of this
device, or consigning it to a place in the netherworld right next to
some other well-known proprietary software company?

[though The "virtual chumby" is an interesting concept -- once you get
it set up, they give you a code-snippet to include in a web page.  The
page can be as simple as 

   <html><body>[pasted code]</body></html>

And sure enough, it will bring up an image of the device and cycle
through the "widgets" in your "channel" (until it hits a widget that
doesn't progress to the next after the time-out)]