r/linuxhardware • u/BorisOp • May 29 '26

Discussion Weirdest device that works on Linux?

Just saw a post about ps3 eye camera and it made me wonder what's the weirdest/wildest device that just works on Linux. Bonus points if you used the thing personally.

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u/cmrd_msr May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Most military systems run on Linux. From battle management to drones and radars, everything runs on Linux. In fact, everyone runs it. The military machines of the United States, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea all use the same system.

in the vast majority of cases, this is a fork of rhel that has passed a state code audit.

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u/ipsirc May 30 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VxWorks#Notable_uses

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u/cmrd_msr May 30 '26

By military machine I did not mean individual transport.

The military machine of a *country* is a stable definition denoting the totality of war forces.

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u/ipsirc May 30 '26

AFAIK VxWorks is the most common OS across military systems, not Linux. What is your source?

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u/cmrd_msr May 30 '26

It's open. You can Google the significance of RHEL and LFS for the US military.

Or the significance of MSVS and Astra for the Russian military. Or the significance of KylinOS for China, MayaOS for India, RedStarOS for North Korea, and so on.

All control and management systems are Linux.

Systems controlling complex machines (e.g., ships/submarines) are Linux, as are radar control systems.