4 ms·

Whats wrong with just helping Linux ? I always find it funny when people try to create "proprietary" stuff in 2015 - its like people learnt nothing from window

by 1971genocide 11y ago

Whats wrong with just helping Linux ? I always find it funny when people try to create "proprietary" stuff in 2015 - its like people learnt nothing from windows. I remember reading about how investment bankers tried to create their own language and it looked like a crude version of C. Its not easy to compete with open source. You just cannot spend 1 billion dollars making an OS. Who is going to fix bugs for the next 20 years ?

jlg23 11y ago
Protecting trade secrets and the GPL don't necessarily mix well.
- wereHamster 11y ago
  Google manages to do that just fine.
  - wongarsu 11y ago
    But google doesn't sell software. Most of their sofware is never distributed outside google (apart from the parts they strategically open-source), so the GPL can't force them to open up their source code.
    - MichaelGG 11y ago
      It's also quite probable that a lot of Google's critical software might not even be covered under GPL. For Linux, unless they're modifying the kernel code, it wouldn't really matter right?
      - deelowe 11y ago
        It doesn't matter either way. Google doesn't distribute their software (except for android, chrome, etc... which does have sources available).
        MichaelGG 11y ago
        ... Which is exactly what the parent said. I'm saying that even if they DID distribute, it still wouldn't matter, as most likely, Google's main-value stuff isn't a modification to GPL software...
        deelowe 11y ago
        Depends on how you define "main value stuff." One of Google's largest engineering teams is infrastructure working on core services, the Kernel, OS, drivers, hardware etc..
    - wereHamster 11y ago
      Neither is the oil industry.
      - wongarsu 11y ago
        But this company is not the one doing the drilling or running the software. They sell hardware and software to the oil industry
      - deelowe 11y ago
        The whole industry? There's quite a few companies that sell hardware and software. This company being one of them.
Sanddancer 11y ago
For one, Linux isn't an RTOS and never will be. The many rejections of real-time patches into the Linux kernel tree have shown that the kernel devs favor performance to precision, so it would be a fool's errand to try once again to push a real-time patch just to get it patched. At which point, you'll end up having to do a lot of your own OS development anyways to backport kernel features you need. There are quite a few situations where Linux will delay interrupts for milliseconds, and quite a few situations where milliseconds can mean millions of dollars. For your last question, 20 years of support will certainly not Linux developers. While MS offers extended support for Windows XP, neither earth nor the heavens will make Red Hat provide extended support for RHEL 3. The Open Source world has a lot to learn from proprietary companies about support still.
- testrun 11y ago
  According to Cyph0n, they are using a Windows 7 image, which is also not a RTOS. Can just as well use Linux in this case.
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    If they are writing their software using .NET then windows would seem to be obvious choice (for now).
    - testrun 11y ago
      True, although mono might be an option.

jlg23 11y ago

Protecting trade secrets and the GPL don't necessarily mix well.

wereHamster 11y ago
Google manages to do that just fine.
- wongarsu 11y ago
  But google doesn't sell software. Most of their sofware is never distributed outside google (apart from the parts they strategically open-source), so the GPL can't force them to open up their source code.
  - MichaelGG 11y ago
    It's also quite probable that a lot of Google's critical software might not even be covered under GPL. For Linux, unless they're modifying the kernel code, it wouldn't really matter right?
    - deelowe 11y ago
      It doesn't matter either way. Google doesn't distribute their software (except for android, chrome, etc... which does have sources available).
      - MichaelGG 11y ago
        ... Which is exactly what the parent said. I'm saying that even if they DID distribute, it still wouldn't matter, as most likely, Google's main-value stuff isn't a modification to GPL software...
        deelowe 11y ago
        Depends on how you define "main value stuff." One of Google's largest engineering teams is infrastructure working on core services, the Kernel, OS, drivers, hardware etc..
  - wereHamster 11y ago
    Neither is the oil industry.
    - wongarsu 11y ago
      But this company is not the one doing the drilling or running the software. They sell hardware and software to the oil industry
    - deelowe 11y ago
      The whole industry? There's quite a few companies that sell hardware and software. This company being one of them.

Sanddancer 11y ago

For one, Linux isn't an RTOS and never will be. The many rejections of real-time patches into the Linux kernel tree have shown that the kernel devs favor performance to precision, so it would be a fool's errand to try once again to push a real-time patch just to get it patched. At which point, you'll end up having to do a lot of your own OS development anyways to backport kernel features you need. There are quite a few situations where Linux will delay interrupts for milliseconds, and quite a few situations where milliseconds can mean millions of dollars. For your last question, 20 years of support will certainly not Linux developers. While MS offers extended support for Windows XP, neither earth nor the heavens will make Red Hat provide extended support for RHEL 3. The Open Source world has a lot to learn from proprietary companies about support still.

testrun 11y ago
According to Cyph0n, they are using a Windows 7 image, which is also not a RTOS. Can just as well use Linux in this case.
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  If they are writing their software using .NET then windows would seem to be obvious choice (for now).
  - testrun 11y ago
    True, although mono might be an option.