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.
Also:
-
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:
-
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.