Make Linux magically disappear

[40hz]

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? 

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

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

 

[cranioscopical]

I tried that under Vista 64-bit and my machine rebooted with XP Pro 32-bit installed.   

[40hz]

I tried that under Vista 64-bit and my machine rebooted with XP Pro 32-bit installed.  

-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!

[cranioscopical]

I tried that under Vista 64-bit and my machine rebooted with XP Pro 32-bit installed.  

-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!

-40hz (April 10, 2009, 07:10 PM)

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

[40hz]

...Those were the days! ...

-cranioscopical (April 10, 2009, 09:23 PM)

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

[MilesAhead]

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]

Like if the guy in the other cubicle left to get a coffee or something.

-MilesAhead (April 10, 2009, 10:24 PM)

That was you? You swine! Ruined practically every coffee break...

[MilesAhead]

Like if the guy in the other cubicle left to get a coffee or something.

-MilesAhead (April 10, 2009, 10:24 PM)

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]

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

[zridling]

I'm surprised it didn't jump to a pure CLI and drop x-windows.

[40hz]

I'm surprised it didn't jump to a pure CLI and drop x-windows.

-zridling (April 14, 2009, 05:21 PM)

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...)

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

-Gwen7 (April 14, 2009, 12:27 PM)

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. 

Shame Nicholas! Shame!