Linux: Operating system in Excel spreadsheet
Linux runs on quite a few devices. Hobbyists have now shown that it also runs as a minimal operating system in Excel.
Linux output in the Excel spreadsheet.
(Image: Screenshot / dmk)
The Linux kernel is already running on numerous processors. Now hobbyists have managed to make Linux run in the Excel spreadsheet as well.
(Image:Â Screenshot / dmk)
A Github project from last week by the hobbyist with the handle "NSG650" contains the source code for "LinuxInExcel". The community edition of Microsoft's Visual Studio can be used to compile the "fun.dll", which is the central component required for Linux-in-Excel.
Excel as a display
NSG650 has implemented the small RISC-V emulator "mini-rv32ima" as a compilable DLL library. This can be integrated by a VBA macro and called from it – to do this, paths to the library must be adapted in the macro and macro execution must generally be permitted in the security settings in Excel. This is of course unsafe and should only be done on a machine that can be reset. On our test machine, however, the result was not executable, even with very far-reaching macro authorizations.
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However, the Youtuber Enderman has created an extended version based on the Git project, which can not only display the output in Excel, but also supports command line input in a cell of the table. We were able to run this variant directly after adjusting the paths in the macro. According to the hobbyist, it is even possible to call up "vim", but due to the lack of a possibility to transfer the pressing of the escape key, texts cannot be edited with it. Control keys cannot be used either, as they only take you to other cells in the Excel spreadsheet.
Technically, the solution is a minimalist emulator that starts a RISC-V Linux kernel with a shell and uses the Excel spreadsheet as its standard interface. In the video, Enderman explains a few tricks on how input and output is managed using polling.
In February, a project was announced that made Linux run in PDF. This was also based on a RISC-V emulator, but it ran in WebAssembly, which is executable in PDF. The output with "PDF-Display" is somewhat coarse-grained, but can be used directly, even for input – but here with a virtual keyboard. However, the natively compiled library for "LinuxInExcel" used in the current case is significantly better performing than the emulation in WebAssembly.
(dmk)
