Coolest Thing You've Ever Done with Linux

This is my favorite new category for the Readers' Choice Awards. Imagine attending a Linux conference and asking everyone the coolest thing they've done with Linux. That's basically what happened here! We've listed a handful of our favorites, but for the entire list, check out: http://www.linuxjournal.com/rc2014/coolest.

Note: the most common answers were "use it"; "rescue data/photos/whatever off broken Windows machines"; "convert friends/family/businesses to Linux"; "learn"; "teach"; "get a job"; "home automation"; and "build a home media server". The following list is of our favorite more-specific and unique answers, not the most common ones.

  • Building my procmail pre-spam spam filter back in the mid-late 1990s.

  • 450-node compute cluster.

  • 7.1 channel preamp with integrated mopidy music player.

  • A robot running Linux (for the Eurobot annual competition).

  • Accidentally printing on the wrong continent.

  • Adding an audio channel to a video while also syncing it.

  • Analyzed NASA satellite data with self-written code.

  • Annoyed the cat remotely.

  • Automated my entire lighting setup in my house to respond to voice and my mobile apps.

  • Automatic window plant irrigation system.

  • Bathroom radio.

  • Brewing beer.

  • Built an application that runs on the International Space Station.

  • Built a system for real-time toll collection for a major toll highway system.

  • Built our own smartphone.

  • Built Web-based home alarm system on Raspberry Pi.

  • Cluster of Raspberry Pis to crack encrypted office documents.

  • Controlled my Parrot drone.

  • Controlled the comms for 186 Wind turbines.

  • Controlling my Meade Telescope with Stellarium under Linux.

  • Converted my old VHS family videos, using a laptop more than ten years old.

  • Created a mesh network in the subarctic.

  • Created an ocean environmental sensor buoy with radio data transmitter.

  • Discovered new planets.

  • Fixed a jabber server in Denver, USA, while in a hotel lobby in Amman, Jordan.

  • Got Linus' autograph on a Red Hat 5.0 CD.

  • Hacked my coffee machine to send me a text message when the coffee is ready.

  • Introduced my daughter to Lego Mindstorm EV3.

  • Monitor the temp and humidity of my wine cellar and open the doors when too hot or humid.

  • Replaced the controller in my hot tub with a Raspberry Pi.

  • Scripted opening and closing of a co-worker's CD tray every 15 seconds for four days.

  • Used an LFS system to move ACH transfers for a national gas company.

  • Flushed my toilet from another city.

  • Remote chicken door.

  • Web-based sprinkler controller for 16 stations on a Raspberry PI (also control the pool and yard lights).

  • Chaining SSH tunnels together to get from work to home via three hops due to restrictive network settings.

  • Built a system that monitors a renewable energy installation with two fixed solar arrays, a two axis sun tracking solar array and a wind turbine. Production and weather data are displayed on a Web site in real time.

  • Back in the days of modems, I had my computer call up my girlfriend every morning, so she would wake up and go to work.

  • Used a Wii controller, through Bluetooth with my Linux computer as an Infrared Camera, to detect the movement of my daughter's Fisher Price Sit and Spin Pony, and to control a video game.

Readers' Choice Awards 2014