setiathome is one of a few ongoing distributed computing projects. The goal of this project is to locate extraterestrial communications in space. Linux can run software as well as other operating systems to do this work once it's downloaded onto your computer. The software is supposed to do its work when the computer is left on line and unused. If other more complex tasks are ongoing then it's supposed to go inactive. The software downloads files from astronomy observatories and then does the analysis on what was found in those files then reports the analysis back to another site. I figure others on other worlds have managed to do travel between star systems and probably don't even use radio spectrum for communications because of the slow speed of communications. I've got no idea what's being used but I also think just on the odd chance we manage to find another world with beings at or a little beyond our stage of development this project might work.
