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Enlightenment GNU is Not Unix GUI Linux

GNU/Linux and Enlightenment Running On a Fridge 222

k-s writes "Linux, the GNU userland and Enlightenment and its foundation libraries (EFL) are known for their resource efficiency and flexibility, key components for embedded products. Today it was announced that such features led them to be used in a fridge that runs Linux and X11 with EFL. The Freescale i.MX25 based fridge by Electrolux (Frigidaire) provides the expected bits such as temperature controls and pre-set modes (vacation, party) as well as a special purpose drawer that cools your drinks and food with a beautiful UI. It also ships with handful applications for contacts, calendar, reminder, digital picture frame and even an illustrated recipe book from a famous Brazilian magazine."
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GNU/Linux and Enlightenment Running On a Fridge

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  • Beer (Score:3, Funny)

    by WrongSizeGlass ( 838941 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @06:34AM (#34329124)
    So, Linux can now keep my beer cold, but can it bring me a cold beer?
  • It's cold out here all alone at the top with a nice UI.

    • by ranulf ( 182665 )
      I think it's cool from a geek point of view, but totally unnecessary.

      Apart from the first couple of days of owning the fridge to set the temperature to something sensible, in the last 6 years, the controls I've wanted to use are "defrost" (once). I can also see the use for the "just got home from supermarket, chill a bit more please" button, but it's not something I need as I'm close enough to the supermarket that my food is still cold when I get it gome.

      • Re:Cool..... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Lloyd_Bryant ( 73136 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:51AM (#34329952)

        Apart from the first couple of days of owning the fridge to set the temperature to something sensible, in the last 6 years, the controls I've wanted to use are "defrost" (once). I can also see the use for the "just got home from supermarket, chill a bit more please" button, but it's not something I need as I'm close enough to the supermarket that my food is still cold when I get it gome.

        Just wait until they start putting RFID or something similar on food packages - then it'll be easy to patch in a "take inventory" mode, and have it tell you what you're out of.

        Or for some of us, maybe a "time in fridge" monitor to warn us when something has passed "somewhat stale" and is heading towards "biohazard"...

      • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

        I'd like to have a fridge with hoses that run outside, bringing cold air into the fridge in the winter, and piping the hot air from the condensers outside in the summer. That would reduce electric and heating costs, and also reduce the power plant emissions.

        It doesn't seem like it would take very complex engineering to do, either. A couple of digital thermometers (one in the freezer, one in the fridge, one outside ), electric shutters, and a simple computer to control it.

        Oh, if someone tries to patent this,

  • Electrotux? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Arancaytar ( 966377 ) <arancaytar.ilyaran@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @06:47AM (#34329170) Homepage

    ...

  • by nthwaver ( 1019400 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @06:48AM (#34329180)
    sudo make me a sandwich
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by TheCreeep ( 794716 )
      *Bzzzt* There. You are a sandwich.
    • by L4t3r4lu5 ( 1216702 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:29AM (#34329804)

      sudo make -k me a sandwich

      FTFY. Must continue despite errors. Wouldn't want to not have any sandwich at all, just because you're missing the pickle.

      • by Narpak ( 961733 )
        It might be safe to predefine the acceptable range of such errors though. Getting a sandwich without the pickle might be alright. However having to deal with some sort of biohazard scenario due to the manufacturing process having spun out of control, might ruin your day to a far greater degree than missing one sandwich.
    • cd ~/sandwich
      ./configure
      make
      sudo make install

      At least that's what I've been told is the magic sequence.

  • ...linux is cool.

    Yes I know, painful. I'm sorry.
  • by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @06:52AM (#34329204) Homepage

    .... really , this is just crazy technology for its own sake. All I want from a fridge is to keep stuff cool. Thats it. I don't need a multitasking operating system to do that or any operating system at all in fact and nor do I need a fridge to tell me when I'm running out of milk - I can usually see that for myself thanks - or re-order stuff for me since I might not want the same things again the following week thanks.

    A fridge IMO is one of the white goods in which the KISS principal definately should apply.

    • by Pflipp ( 130638 )

      > All I want from a fridge is to keep stuff cool.

      Adding linux makes it 100% cooler.

      Plus, the fridge obviously keeps the computer cool. Win-win. Help global warming!

      • Plus, the fridge obviously keeps the computer cool.

        The fridge uses an energy-efficient, cool-running ARM CPU, so that's not much of an issue. Computers can be very energy efficient when they don't need to do something quickly / run Windows / play Crysis. A modern smartphone is more than powerful enough to be a home server - until a few months ago my PDA was more powerful than my home server. I could live with a laptop powered by a Marvell Armada 628, I'd love to have one in my PDA.

    • by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @07:58AM (#34329604)
      Relax dude, these complicated new fangled horseless carriages also won't ever succeed...
      • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        If horses could already do 70mph , run for hours without a stop and be refilled in minutes they wouldn't have done. If you've already got something that works fine why replace it with something that is more complicated, probably more expensive and doesn't do a better job?

        • Horseless carriages are more complicated, more expensive, and for the kinds of transport people were already doing with horses, typically not any better.

          You're letting your lack of imagination get the better of you. Currently your fridge doesn't do anything except regulate the interior to some specific temperature. But imagine any of these improvements, which didn't take me 3 whole minutes to concoct, and which are entirely within the limits of current, consumer-priced electronics and computing capabilities

          • Maybe at night we run longer, more widely spaced cooling cycles because we know the door rarely opens to lose our cold air.

            You know that fridges only run the compressor when they warm up inside, right? So if you don't open the door, they don't warm up as frequently and the compressor stays off.

          • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

            "Horseless carriages are more complicated, more expensive, and for the kinds of transport people were already doing with horses, typically not any better."

            Horses need to be fed and watered often, tire relatively quickly, tend to shit everywhere, arn't particularly comfortable to sit on and generally can only take a max of 2 people. Not problems you usually get with cars.

            Other than that, no , horseless carraiges are no better.

            • Horses need to be fed and watered often

              Cars need to be refuelled and maintained often.

              tire relatively quickly, tend to shit everywhere

              overheat, pollute

              arn't particularly comfortable to sit on and generally can only take a max of 2 people.

              You know, there's a reason that cars were called "horseless carriages", Einstein. The name implies the existence of a carriage WITH a horse.

        • If horses could already do 70mph , run for hours without a stop and be refilled in minutes they wouldn't have done. If you've already got something that works fine why replace it with something that is more complicated, probably more expensive and doesn't do a better job?

          WTF? Have you SEEN an early car? You'd be lucky to get them up to 15 km/h, let alone 70 mph. They were loud, inconvenient, overly complex contraptions which spent more time in the shop than they did on the road. A horse was a thousand times better. If we had stuck with your mentality nobody would have ever bothered developing the automobile to the point where they're actually useful. Luckily for man-kind, there have always been geeks who are willing to put up with all sorts of inconveniences and heada

      • by vandan ( 151516 )

        :) Was thinking something very similar, just as I came to your post.

    • None of us on /. need a fridge to tell us we're running out of milk. None of us have milk, you insensitive clod.

      PS. Don't kiss your principal.

    • Think of it like this. You have metric ass-tons of money. Your counter-tops cost $20k. The floors another $10k. You have a cook, a housekeeper. Your cupboards are filled with food imported from all over the world. Now you need a fridge... The biggest thing in your kitchen is going to be the least expensive? Are you going to go to bestbuy to pick it out? No. So there are these sorts of appliances that seem crazy to a normal person but really are just and excuse to pour money into a device so it doesn't deval
      • by TheLink ( 130905 )

        Maybe so, but to justify an expensive fridge's price tag by slapping on a calendar+digital frame+recipe book shows a disappointing lack of imagination.

        If I were a billionaire geek, I wouldn't spend extra $$$ just so my fridge gets a stupid calendar.

        I'd add better materials and functionally _related_ features.

        Each of my fridges (hey why not have more than one right?) would have aerogel insulation, better door seals, and shelves+walls made of better and tougher material.

        And add a bunch of air jets, thermal ca

    • A fridge IMO is one of the white goods in which the KISS principal definately should apply.

      Ah, yes, like Apple products.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      if it does the above tasks well i don't see why not. it's not like if it was going to force reordering of what you need. But i'd like if it told me "eggs u put there 1 week ago are going to be bad tomorrow if u dont make them today" cause hey, we don't all always remember that stuff.
      I'm not saying i'd pay extra for it, but if it's there (and will eventually be there) then why not. Can always open the fridge and check everything inside if you prefer that.

    • You sound like an Apple user.

      So you want to find out if you're out of milk so you know if you need to pick some up on the way home from work, but since you're human you can't remember. You don't know if you need eggs either.

      With a computerized fridge you could find out. It could also track it's own performance and tell you if something is wrong, rather than just seeing the difference on your electricity bill. It doesn't need to have a screen or a keypad, it could look like a regular fridge, but a little bar

  • thats cool!
  • E16 used to check for 'mass quantities of bass ale in fridge'... has this now become reality? I'm impressed

  • Possible uses... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by IronSight ( 1925612 )
    Well, it would be cool to have a list of contents with the date they were put in so you can keep track of things that need to be thrown out (useful for foodservice industry to keep only fresh foods on hand). A timer app to beep when you need to pull the turkey out in case your stove doesn't have a timer (I know my gas stove doesn't). Of course the recipe app they mentioned is a good idea. Temp contols aswell. An app that checks the compressor status and other things (like those industrial air conditioners t
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      "Well, it would be cool to have a list of contents with the date they were put in so you can keep track of things that need to be thrown out (useful for foodservice industry to keep only fresh foods on hand)."

      So you want to sit and enter a date for every item you ever put into your fridge? As far as I know, no barcode contains data about expiry dates. If you did, you'd need one on every product. Then you (and your kids) would need to scan everything in and out in order for it to be anywhere near accurate

      • Apparently it's inconcievable in your world for your fridge to scan the UPC to determine the content of the container and assume a typical expiry period based on the product type and an assumption that the first time it is scanned is within the first day or three of the product's life.

        As for tracking, things with UPCs could be easily tracked with no modification of user behavior. Even things that lose their UPC with use could be tracked -- cheese is scanned when first put into fridge with intact UPC. Cheese

        • by Arlet ( 29997 )

          Sounds like a lot of work, even when it works perfectly. I just scan articles with my nose whenever I doubt the freshness.

        • by ledow ( 319597 )

          I disagree with almost everything in that post.

          I didn't say the UPC thing *can't* be done. I said it *wouldn't* be done as a matter of course or be accurate enough to rely on. You're still gonna have to check if you have cheese before you go to the shops. And the plain assumption of an expiry date is actually pretty much a lawsuit waiting to happen so you won't see that, or it'll be a build-it-yourself thing.

          Optimising energy usage? I agree you could do a lot. But then cutting out the display would pro

      • Don't buy fridges that lock their doors (silly American idea? I don't know but ours are just magnetic catches and they work just fine - even my 2-year-old can open it).

        Try every refrigerator before 1956 when the American Congress passed the Refrigerator Safety Act. Of course, to be fair in-home refrigerators did start here, so we should be responsible for fixing them up, even though I'm sure a locking door was good enough for your grandparents and they didn't need some new-fangled magnetic gasket, by golly.

      • Hey this guy with a bitchin' beard ran up to me and said he needs your help raising a barn, might want to see what that was about.

    • by Lennie ( 16154 )

      I just want to know if it has an RJ45-connector. :-)

    • Shall we play a game?
  • But does it run Lin.... oh it does? Carry on then.

  • So what? Over a decade ago we had washing machines and fridges whose GUI was written in Java.

  • by RenHoek ( 101570 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @07:59AM (#34329608) Homepage

    *ring ring*
    "Yes hello?"
    "Excuse me, is your fridge running?"
    "Yes, it has an uptime of over 3 months now."
    "..."
    *click*

    I think I'm doing something wrong here..

  • Pictures! (Score:3, Informative)

    by jovetoo ( 629494 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:02AM (#34329634) Journal
    You can find pictures here... http://www.electrolux.com.br/ikitchen_ra/ [electrolux.com.br]
  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:09AM (#34329678)

    If it had KDE, you'd need a 3GHz i7 and a NVidia GTX480 just to open the fridge in less than a minute.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by JamesP ( 688957 )

      And if it was Gnome there wouldn't be a 'getting cold' functionality as it's for 'advanced users only'

      *ducks*

  • It's amazing how Slashdot can give me an oblique reference to a song, that no folks on Slashdot are old enough to have heard:

    The Cramps Tv set Lyrics:

    oh baby i see you on my tv set yeah baby i see you on my tv set i cut your head off and put it in my tv set

    i use your eyeballs for dials on my tv set

    i watch tv i watch tv

    since i put you in my tv set

    oh baby i hear you on my radio yeah baby i hear you on my radio you know i flip flip flip for my radio you're going drip drip drip on my radio am radio pm radio since i tuned you inside my radio... like this!

    oh baby i see you in my frigidaire yeah baby i see you in my frigidaire behind the mayonnaise, way in the back i'm gonna see you tonight for a midnight snack but though

    it's cold you won't get old 'cause you're well preserved in my frigidaire yahhhhhhh.

  • But does it run....oh wait. Never mind.
  • by Zedrick ( 764028 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:23AM (#34329768)
    How does price/performance compare to a toaster running NetBSD?
  • ... and yet, the clock probably still looses time when the power fails
  • by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:38AM (#34329852)

    ... like 'Enlightenment 17 Final released'.

    After all, it's only been in development for, what, 9 years or so?
    That better be one helluva desktop enviroment when they declare final release. :-)

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      It is and has been for a long time, download it and give it a try. Features such as being able to get into the desktop menus from anywhere on the desktop instead of only a "start" menu are useful. Even 0.16 which I use at work and hasn't had much but bugfixes since about 2000 is very impressive. It had little thumbnail pictures of app windows for icons just like win7 only back before slashdot existed.
  • with unparalleled control over his refrigerator,

    How much control does a fridge need?

  • "The Freescale i.MX25 based fridge by Electrolux (Frigidaire) provides the expected bits such as temperature controls and pre-set modes (vacation, party)"
    Expected bits? Preset modes? Pardon? Submitter must be from an altogether other planet where all the fridges hum cheerfull songs and do your groceries for you. My fridges, on the other hand, comes with a knob that reads 1-5 and controls the temperature. When I go on a long vacation, I pull the plug and jam the door with a stone so it won't stink when I ret

  • by SirGarlon ( 845873 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @08:55AM (#34329980)
    http://profusion.mobi/first_product_of_profusion_and_electrolux_partnership [profusion.mobi] This fridge looks bigger than my car. Clearly it is a high-end "prestige" product. I think it is a bit silly myself, but whatever.
  • tagging's borken
  • Frigid (Score:4, Funny)

    by iamamoose ( 243231 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2010 @09:20AM (#34330150) Homepage

    Nice pic of the GUI on Flickr [flickr.com]

    Looks like this appliance can do more than cool your food (see top left of image)

    • It's got "sex" written in the upper-left corner on the pic you linked. WTH? And no, I'm not even going to try to Google for what sex means in Portuguese while I'm at work...
  • ... It stops for now reason and needs frequent rebooting.

Your program is sick! Shoot it and put it out of its memory.

Working...