And the Winners Are......

Drum roll please!

Today Plat’Home unveiled the four winners of the “Will Linux Work?” contest. As you all know, Plat’Home has been scouring the blogosphere and twittersphere on the hunt for the wackiest and most interesting ideas to test out their OpenMicroServer and see if Linux can really work in any environment.

Today we announce the winners :


• Winner #1 lives aboard a trimaran in New Zealand and needs a small, low power device to record positional data and monitor the engine, fuel reserves and rate of consumption. The OpenMicroServer will be put to the test against constant motion, vibrations, a sweeping variety of temperature conditions and the risk of electrolysis from lack of proper grounding and presence of salt water.

• Winner #2 will use the OpenMicroServer as a controller for amateur radio repeaters in an unheated container on a 4200’ hilltop. He will also use Asterisk (open source VOIP solution) and modified USB audio dongles to interface with the radio.

• Winner #3 will use the OpenMicroServer as a home utility automation device to be more efficient with energy usage. The system will monitor heating zones, hot water and air conditioning system cycle times to allow extracting daily information and plan strategies for fuel and cost savings. Advanced versions of the system will allow for time-of-day scheduling to take advantage of variable utility rates.

• Winner #4 will use the OpenMicroServer as an irrigation control system. He has developed software to control his 5-acre pasture and orchard ranch’s irrigation system, but needs a server that can deal with the hot California summer heat (104°F and more) and ubiquitous dust.

Why are there only four winners you ask? When there are clearly five OpenMicroServers to be awarded?! Plat’Home will award the fifth server to the Interop NY conference attendee with the best idea. This week Plat’Home will be attending the conference and will be asking attendees to submit potential scenarios onsite at their booth No. 1137. The fifth winner will be chosen at the end of the conference.

Our first four brave little servers have begun their voyage across the world to their new destinations though and are getting ready to be pushed to the limits! Please stay tuned to see how they fair! We will be reporting updates from the winners on the blog and Twitter feed and will cover the results of the experiments after October 7th.