Driving across Brazil with Ubuntu hooked up to a solid 3G connection may sound like my own take on an ace road trip but, according to one former Google Streetview driver, it’s exactly how Google Streetview cars travel around the world.

‘Ubuntu in the trunk’

From photographing corpses (!) to cooling off over-heated hard drives using the in-car air conditioning the driver, speaking to Brazilian news site Folha.com, shares his front-seat take on the, frankly, odd job that intrigues many – including on the equipment vital to the projects purpose.

The article explains: –

“In the trunk [of the car] is a computer running Ubuntu [a Linux-based operating system]. Several cables were connecting the CPU to the monitor, which stands in place of the passenger seat. The photos are shot in accordance with the movement of the car – about one photo per meter.”

If you read Portuguese (or enjoy reading badly translated Portuguese) then there are other amusing anecdotes to be read, so head over to Folha.com for more.

Petrus Via Tipform