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There's a contingent of enthusiasts who, once they find out a device runs Linux or can run Linux, seems determined to expose a terminal on it. I don't know why

There's a contingent of enthusiasts who, once they find out a device runs Linux or can run Linux, seems determined to expose a terminal on it. I don't know why someone needs to SSH into their toaster, but damned if they're not gonna do it, just because they can. Me personally, I just want a reliable toaster.

RattlesnakeJake 28d ago
I always assume it's more for the challenge and accomplishment than anything practical. The results are always neat, but rarely anything you'd actually use for general-purpose computing.
MYEUHD 28d ago
Obviously you ssh into your toaster so you can host a website on it, or run DOOM
- 9dev 28d ago
  What worth is a toaster if it can't run DOOM? What worth is life if you never even find out??
jauntywundrkind 28d ago
This isn't Normie News! I think you are on the wrong site! The street finds its own use for things is the excitement that we don't know what is possible, and that we ought be free to try. The amazing suite of software here sure looks like self evident proof about how exciting it is when we can go further, to me. I love the LLM prompt sidekick; super neat as an ambient display. It's really sad how HN is so vocally anti-hacker, is so conservative, shows up so regularly to declare alliance to anti-possibility, to anti-features. For some people, they don't only fail to be interested, they are expressly anti interested, the only thing they want is for everyone else to have to live as constrained and unexplorarive and unthoughtful as they are. I don't get it. Conservatism is a wicked disease, imo.
- Apocryphon 28d ago
  I think the distaste is more against feature bloat. This sub-thread is reacting to dedicated e-readers succumbing to becoming full-fledged app-running devices. Is the refresh rate on an e-ink display even suitable for general computing? Plus, isn't it fairly old hat to get root access on a Linux consumer device and then running whatever you want on it? Oh, it makes for a neat party trick you could make an Action Retro YouTube video out of. But perhaps people are just jaded since they've seen it done on a million types of devices by now. Maybe there are more interesting ways, and things, to hack.
  - jauntywundrkind 28d ago
    "Bloat" people strike me as similar to wikipedia "notability" concerned people. It's a whole realm of thinking focused on deleting. Which yeah, sometimes that's important too! That's a great way to assess architectures. But this feels like such a general field, of so much, and to be immediately putting up fences around what we will and will not consider: I'm not here for it. Worthless, anti-worth finding exercise. Just why?
  - foobarchu 27d ago
    That's their point though. The hacker ethos doesn't ask "should I do this" it asks "can I do this", and that's kind of beautiful when it's not scaled up to a corporate level. The goal doesn't have to be practicality.
necovek 27d ago
As other noted, apart from us being on HackerNews, if my toaster does and/or can run Linux, I want to have full control over any software running in my home. If a toaster needs to just be a good toaster, it sure as hell does not need a SoC than can run Linux, and I might give it the benefit of the doubt and consider its FW closely tied to HW.

RattlesnakeJake 28d ago

I always assume it's more for the challenge and accomplishment than anything practical. The results are always neat, but rarely anything you'd actually use for general-purpose computing.

MYEUHD 28d ago

Obviously you ssh into your toaster so you can host a website on it, or run DOOM

9dev 28d ago
What worth is a toaster if it can't run DOOM? What worth is life if you never even find out??

jauntywundrkind 28d ago

This isn't Normie News! I think you are on the wrong site! The street finds its own use for things is the excitement that we don't know what is possible, and that we ought be free to try. The amazing suite of software here sure looks like self evident proof about how exciting it is when we can go further, to me. I love the LLM prompt sidekick; super neat as an ambient display. It's really sad how HN is so vocally anti-hacker, is so conservative, shows up so regularly to declare alliance to anti-possibility, to anti-features. For some people, they don't only fail to be interested, they are expressly anti interested, the only thing they want is for everyone else to have to live as constrained and unexplorarive and unthoughtful as they are. I don't get it. Conservatism is a wicked disease, imo.

Apocryphon 28d ago
I think the distaste is more against feature bloat. This sub-thread is reacting to dedicated e-readers succumbing to becoming full-fledged app-running devices. Is the refresh rate on an e-ink display even suitable for general computing? Plus, isn't it fairly old hat to get root access on a Linux consumer device and then running whatever you want on it? Oh, it makes for a neat party trick you could make an Action Retro YouTube video out of. But perhaps people are just jaded since they've seen it done on a million types of devices by now. Maybe there are more interesting ways, and things, to hack.
- jauntywundrkind 28d ago
  "Bloat" people strike me as similar to wikipedia "notability" concerned people. It's a whole realm of thinking focused on deleting. Which yeah, sometimes that's important too! That's a great way to assess architectures. But this feels like such a general field, of so much, and to be immediately putting up fences around what we will and will not consider: I'm not here for it. Worthless, anti-worth finding exercise. Just why?
- foobarchu 27d ago
  That's their point though. The hacker ethos doesn't ask "should I do this" it asks "can I do this", and that's kind of beautiful when it's not scaled up to a corporate level. The goal doesn't have to be practicality.

necovek 27d ago

As other noted, apart from us being on HackerNews, if my toaster does and/or can run Linux, I want to have full control over any software running in my home. If a toaster needs to just be a good toaster, it sure as hell does not need a SoC than can run Linux, and I might give it the benefit of the doubt and consider its FW closely tied to HW.