Someone got Linux running inside a PDF file, because its users are something else
Quoting: Someone got Linux running inside a PDF file, because its users are something else —
Every so often, we see a wave of activity around cramming something that shouldn't be running in a specific document or app into said document or app. If you (like myself) had the naive thought that PDF files were static, boring documents that can't do things like, I don't know, play Tetris or something, then boy, do we have news for you. Someone has taken PDF tinkering to the next level and got Linux running within a document, and you can give it a spin if you don't believe me.
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Wow! You Can Now Run Linux Inside a PDF
Other than being a reliable piece of software, Linux has made some really cool things a reality, be it by powering a coffee maker or running Doom on a terminal. Of course, the tinkerers who dedicate their time and resources to innovate are the real MVPs here.
One such tinkerer, vk6_ (aka ading2210/Allen), a high-school student with an affinity for programming, web development, and cybersecurity, has managed to do something very noteworthy.
They successfully managed to run Linux inside a PDF file on a web browser.
Also here:
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You Can Now Run Linux Inside A PDF File
DOOM ports have been left behind in the past.
Not too long ago, a talented high school student known as Ading2210 managed to create a port of DOOM that runs inside a PDF file, playable right in your browser. Turns out, that's just the beginning of what the popular format can do. Ading2210 took it even further by packing a pretty much functional Linux distribution inside the PDF.
This is Linux running inside a PDF file via a RISC-V emulator, which is based on TinyEMU. Working in a very similar way to the DoomPDF project, LinuxPDF can be launched in any browser on the Chromium engine with support for the PDFium library. A virtual keyboard is used to enter console commands. Both 64- and 32-bit versions are possible for the root file system. You can try LinuxPDF here and lean more about it on GitHub.
Tom's Hardware:
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Minimal Linux OS runs in a 6MB PDF document in Chrome — LinuxPDF leverages RISC-V emulator
A version of the Linux operating system can now be run inside a PDF opened by a Chromium-based browser. The brains behind the coding gymnastics involved in this 6MB LinuxPDF project belong to high school student Ading2210. If the name is familiar, it might be because the same person created DoomPDF, which we reported on in January.
Ading2210 explains that Linux runs in the PDF within a modified version of the TinyEMU RISC-V emulator. The developer notes that LinuxPDF "works in a very similar way to my previous DoomPDF project." Like DoomPDF, this Linux-in-a-doc project also has a bit of a performance problem, as it is claimed to be "over 100x slower" than it should be.