Tiny MP3 Player Boots Linux

Shinco developed a medallion-shaped portable MP3 player that can be used, among other things, to boot PCs into Linux when connected through a USB port. It runs an embedded Linux distribution called “Shinux” that can boot a PC if it runs a BIOS that can boot from a USB device. Shinux comes with a wide variety of applications, including the Apache web server, the Balsa email client, the Firebird browser (Firefox), the GAIM instant messenger, the Abiword word processor, the gFTP graphical FTP client, the Jags network browser, the MPlayer DVD/video player, the gnumeric spreadsheet, the GQview digital camera interface, the Sodipodi vector graphics, and the xterm X console, the emelFM2 file manager, the tightVNC remote access, and the XMMS multimedia player. Depending on the model, the device has either 128MB or 256MB of flash memory. A lithium-ion battery provides up to eight hours of playback and recharges when connected to a PC through a USB cable. The device can also be used to store files of all types, more....