A few years ago I did:
FYI, /dev/sda1 contained Windows XP

That was pretty cool!!!

I'd say learning about programming and the overall *nix environment, so far. Also, it's unreasonably pleasing for me to have two installations sharing the same swap space. :D

ah ah
lol that was indeed pretty cool

but I guess you can recover it no? there isnt some recovering hdd tool for that?

I doubt it, the HDD was actually OVERWRITTEN.

The coolest thing I've ever done with Linux?

Well, there's a lot. Here on the home front:

a) I've watched movies on here. Converted them to other formats with ease. Backed them up to a jukebox server, played them on the PS3 via Mediatomb. I often watch Youtube.
b) I've done tons of word processing on here using Open Office instead of Microsoft Office. I've got 50 text files opened up all at once on Kate right now. Try doing that in Windows 7, much less XP.
c) I'm listening to my favorite music on Audacious, and serve music to all the computers on the network.
d) I get plugged into Pandora when I want to.
e) I can burn data archive DVDs on 2 burners at once. (Sometimes)
f) I can get Opera, Firefox and Google Chrome going with a ton of really big pages each, all at the same time.
g) I can Skype...
h) or run Ekiga with video conferencing.
i) I can run a bunch of torrents via Azureus.
j) I can vnc to another computer screen via my second monitor.
k) I can open up a VirtualBox and run a whole other operating system inside this OS.


Each one by itself is not awesome. The cool factor is that I am doing ALL OF THE ABOVE, simultaneously. Right. Now. On a 32-bit system.* Windows 7 chokes trying to this with the same specs (cpu, RAM, video card), particularly by f). Windows XP absolutely CROAKS by the time I get to e), starting with the fact that the sheer number of open files takes it down hard.

On the business front I've made use of existing industry-wide techniques for replacing Windows workstations and servers with CentOS servers and diskless clients for security's sake. The only barrier that stops me from being able to walk in and convert an entire Windows-based office to Linux overnight is data migration issues, and proprietary computer software in places like medical offices.

* Your mileage may vary. This stunt is being done by a trained professional armed with 8gb of RAM in PAE Kernel mode.

I have closed this thread as it is better if we all create new threads for our individual successes. Back in 2003 a large thread was somewhat appropriate, but is no longer needed. See also: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...formed-867159/