I had a great conversation with @gschiano last evening where we discussed the incredible diversity of devices and use cases of Ubuntu out there. That lead us to wonder… what are some of the strangest and most unique applications of Ubuntu. I know I’ve personally noticed the occasional grub boot loader with an Ubuntu entry on a store kiosk or an iconic aubergine wallpaper on some digital signage.
Perhaps you yourself have an Ubuntu powered toaster or are actively working to install Questing Quokka on your new Nintendo Switch 2.
What’s the most interesting place that you’ve seen Ubuntu? We’d love to hear all about it!
I was on a Zoom call for a Toastmasters officer training, I think it was two or three years ago. We had a very capable “zoom-master” who kept things running smoothly. At one point, he must have been changing over what he was screensharing, and I briefly caught a glimpse of his desktop. I’m 98% certain it was Ubuntu.
Trouble was, from then on I found it a bit harder to concentrate on the actual training material because I was looking for an opportunity to ask him about his desktop. I wasn’t ever able to, unfortunately.
I remember almost ten years ago I went to a dental hospital to check out my teeth. I don’t know if ‘dental hospital’ is the proper term, but it was a small public clinic only for that kind of consultations.
Before leaving, I was checking out with an emlpoyee for a date to come back, and saw her screen, and it looked vaguely familiar, not because of the software, but because of the desktop. A few minutes later the glmatrix screensaver showed up, and I knew it was an old version of Ubuntu. I asked the employee but she didn’t know anything about it. Later I found out they were using an old Ubuntu version (before Unity) for their computers. They were not connected to the internet, it was just a local network.
It’s also fun to spot Ubuntu being used in labs, robots, AI, or other engineering settings, typically on YouTube videos or documentaries, such as this drone delivery company (March 2025):
That’s a nice collection of 'buntu sightings, @popey!
I’m not sure it’s the most interesting place I’ve seen Ubuntu “in the wild”, but it’s definitely an important one: here we see it in use by Dr. Katie Bouman’s team during the process of obtaining the first image of a black hole:
Also, those of you into Go/Baduk and/or Artificial Intelligence would have already watched the AlphaGo documentary, where the DeepMind team were all using Ubuntu desktops (and they were all using Vim, aside from one developer running Emacs inside tmux).
or are actively working to install Questing Quokka on your new Nintendo Switch 2. 
