First Tetris, then Doom, now Linux – what’s next?
Predictably, within days, a high school student upgraded the hack to run Doom within a PDF file.
The same developer has now enhanced the code to execute the entire Linux operating system.
Although performance is limited, the project redefines what’s possible with PDF JavaScript tools.
Users can try ithereusing Chromium browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Opera.
The source code is available on the developer’sGitHubpage.
LinuxPDF runs in a RISC-V emulator based on TinyEMU.
Its inner workings closely resemble those of Ading2210’s DoomPDF.
Although the PDF format was primarily designed to display text and images, it can also run JavaScript code.
Like DoomPDF, the Linux emulation suffers from slow performance.
Booting the kernel takes up to a full minute about 100 times longer than a traditional Linux system.
The file system is 32-bit by default.
Sadly, running the 64-bit version doubles the performance deficit.
Users interested in a more practical Linux app for low-end hardware cantryAding2210’s ChromeOS RMA Shim Bootloader.
The script collection allows a full Debian distro to run on a Chromebook without modifying the firmware.
The project also supports enrolled enterprise devices.
