topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 3:11 pm
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Make Linux magically disappear  (Read 9085 times)

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Make Linux magically disappear
« on: April 10, 2009, 03:26 PM »
There's a great video making the rounds in the Linux community.

One of the most famous (or infamous) commands in the NIX world is running rm -rf / as a superuser.

For those of you who aren't fans of Unix or Linux, this command basically tells the system to remove all files and directories starting at the root directory and not ask for any confirmation.

Ever wonder what would happen if some fool actually did run it?  :tellme:

Enter the Fool. Check out this video and watch Linux magically disappear:

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=wWOjmvWPRvQ

 8)
« Last Edit: April 10, 2009, 03:30 PM by 40hz »

cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2009, 03:51 PM »
I tried that under Vista 64-bit and my machine rebooted with XP Pro 32-bit installed.   :o

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2009, 07:10 PM »
I tried that under Vista 64-bit and my machine rebooted with XP Pro 32-bit installed.   :o
-cranioscopical (April 10, 2009, 03:51 PM)

Wow! You were lucky. I tried it with WinXP-SP3 and I rebooted into a copy of Visicalc running under CP/M! :P


cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2009, 09:23 PM »
I tried that under Vista 64-bit and my machine rebooted with XP Pro 32-bit installed.   :o
-cranioscopical (April 10, 2009, 03:51 PM)

Wow! You were lucky. I tried it with WinXP-SP3 and I rebooted into a copy of Visicalc running under CP/M! :P

 ;D ;D  (I think you might have been the more lucky of us. Those were the days!)


40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2009, 09:44 PM »
...Those were the days! ...
-cranioscopical (April 10, 2009, 09:23 PM)

Yes and no.  ;)
(Like most things in life. ;D)


MilesAhead

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Posts: 7,736
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2009, 10:24 PM »
Reminds me of the old 2 instruction Dos program:
cli
jmp $


Turn off interrupts and jump here. If you ran it in an OS/2 Dos box it would hard lock the machine unless it had a built-in break out alarm handler. All the machines had debug.com so you could bring up a Dos window and in a few seconds type those lines in, assemble the program and run it.  Like if the guy in the other cubicle left to get a coffee or something. :)

cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2009, 10:40 PM »
Like if the guy in the other cubicle left to get a coffee or something.
That was you? You swine! Ruined practically every coffee break... :)


MilesAhead

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2009
  • **
  • Posts: 7,736
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2009, 01:53 PM »
Like if the guy in the other cubicle left to get a coffee or something.
That was you? You swine! Ruined practically every coffee break... :)


-cranioscopical (April 10, 2009, 10:40 PM)

Hey!! You coulda' brought me back a coffee now and then ya' know!! ;)

Gwen7

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2009
  • *
  • Posts: 134
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2009, 12:27 PM »
The other way is to twist the arms of netbook manufacturers. Or pay off the Ministers of poor governments. ;)

zridling

  • Friend of the Site
  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,299
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2009, 05:21 PM »
I'm surprised it didn't jump to a pure CLI and drop x-windows.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Make Linux magically disappear
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2009, 06:24 PM »
I'm surprised it didn't jump to a pure CLI and drop x-windows.

Funny. That's what I thought it would do too. Or maybe even hard-hang. Must come from seeing our share of BSODs back in our younger days.

I think it didn't  because what was left on the screen and semi-working was already in RAM. Just goes to show there's something to be said for the Unix concept of 'graceful' system degradation.

'Course, if he logged off or restarted it would have been all over.

(Damn! I just know I've gotta try it one of these days. Boy do I ever I hate this guy...)
;D


The other way is to twist the arms of netbook manufacturers. Or pay off the Ministers of poor governments. ;)

Makes your blood boil doesn't it? That's one reason why I also stopped following the OLPC story. Listening to Nick Negroponte try to put a positive spin on that blatant 'sell-out' is enough to make a snake blush.  :down:

Shame Nicholas! Shame!



« Last Edit: April 14, 2009, 06:36 PM by 40hz »