A developer somehow got an entire OS running on Google Drive

Ersei, a Purdue student, managed to boot a full Linux OS from Google Drive using a FUSE RAM disk and overcame several technical challenges.

: Ersei, a Purdue University student, achieved the remarkable feat of booting a full Linux operating system directly from Google Drive. Using a FUSE RAM disk, EFI images, and pivot_root, the Arch Linux desktop environment was successfully loaded on a laptop with no local storage. The system is slow and has permission issues, but it demonstrates the potential for cloud-based booting.

Ersei, a computer science student from Purdue University, managed to boot a full Linux distribution directly from Google Drive. This ambitious project was sparked by Ersei's competitive nature after a friend successfully booted Linux from a Network File System.

To accomplish this, Ersei used a FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) RAM disk to load essential OS components from Google Drive. Challenges included handling EFI images and Google Drive symlinks, but persistence paid off with a successful boot of an Arch Linux desktop on a laptop without local storage.

Despite the slow performance and broken permissions, the project opens up intriguing possibilities for cloud-based operating systems. Ersei jokes about the potential for companies to abandon unreliable hardware storage in favor of cloud solutions and hints at future projects like a Nix installation.

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