4 ms·

In the US, its the OS that runs the checkouts, deli scales and most everything else at Walmart and all of Kroger's subsidiaries.

SEJeff 8y ago
Do you have a source for this by chance?
- jchw 8y ago
  I don't have a source but I know the IBM SurePOS units at Kmart indeed ran an old version of SuSE Linux.
- quiq 8y ago
  Anecdotal, but I remember ~4 years ago working at Walmart as a summer job. The handheld scanners (telzon/gemini) you see employees with would boot to SUSE. A lot of back office software like employee schedules and permissions with those handhelds were still managed with what looked like curses based stuff.
- apazgo 8y ago
  We have around 30k machines running sles in production (stores) around the world. Deployed around 4000 more a couple of weeks ago, so yes, it exists for sure. Not in the US tho.
- nickpsecurity 8y ago
  Just watch the screens of anything the companies use when you're in there. Look at the model numbers and Google them. You'll find a lot given most aren't that creative: they do a customized version of the default, enterprise offering. For instance, a restarting computer at the local Kroger where I shop said IBM SurePOS. Looking it up, it turns out some group tried to make a concurrent version of DOS that IBM modified into a specialized OS for POS's. Recently, they upgraded to touchscreens running Linux on Fujitsu boxes. The GUI is ugly, slow, and has the tell-tell coffee mug in corner of dialogs. Appears Kroger, always slow as can be, got on Java desktop bandwagon just as everyone else chasing fads were leaving it for stuff like web apps or Electron. The self-checkouts have a Windows loading screen. Probably was WinXP Embedded given they're old. The handhelds use mainframe-era, terminal apps. Their computers at customer service are thin clients from HP at this location. I think one said "Iceweasel" one time. The checkout predictor thing with the three balls on monitor showed something Linux-related one time. If you ask employees, you'll get SCO OpenServer, AS/400, mainframe, and a pile of random apps with web interfaces. I don't know what they run. One employee told me email and web browsers load in what must be VM's that take 5-10 min to load on the thin clients. It must be unbearable. So, Kroger certainly uses plenty of Linux with mission-critical services being on it. Their choices for inventory and desktop GUI's also hint they're pretty backwards in their practices. I'm not sure about the others since I mostly shop at Kroger.
  - voxadam 8y ago
    Didn't Fujitsu buy IBM's SurePOS division a few years ago?
    - nickpsecurity 8y ago
      Toshiba did. The part of Toshiba that does point-of-sale and such bought the part of IBM that does same things. Made the Fujitsu machines replacing IBM's a bit more confusing but it's Linux-based now. Should run on about anything. Maybe they just really wanted Fujitsu hardware for some reason. Maybe they got a lot in an auction or something. (shrugs)
  - lproven 8y ago
    > some group tried to make a concurrent version of DOS I think you really do not know much about the history of PC operating systems. IBM licensed Digital Research's real-time OS, FlexOS, for its point-of-sale machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexOS FlexOS is related to DR's Concurrent DOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiuser_DOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiuser_DOS ... which was the descendant of Concurrent CP/M, which was the offspring of CP/M-86, one of the 3 original OSes at launch for the IBM PC in 1981 (along with PC DOS and the UCSD p-System). CP/M was the original industry-standard OS for 8080 micros. It is what MS-DOS is a knock-off version of -- MS-DOS was licensed from SCP, whose QDOS was a copy of CP/M. "Some group tried," indeed. This is the original OS company, successfully trading and dominating the industry when Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Micro-Soft.
    - nickpsecurity 8y ago
      "I think you really do not know much about the history of PC operating systems." Well, that's a big assumption and rude at the same time. I post a lot here about the history of operating systems. I'm well aware of DOS and CP/M. I know little to nothing about Concurrent DOS or FlexOS because of no need. So, let's look at your link: "IBM licensed Digital Research's real-time OS, FlexOS, for its point-of-sale machines." ...the article you link says "IBM originally chose DR Concurrent DOS 286 as the basis of their IBM 4680 computer for IBM Plant System products and Point-of-Sale terminals..." The original source I read those terminals said they were based on Concurrent DOS. So does my comment and this link. Clearly, I did some research. Kroger's POS's also said IBM 4680. Let's see where FlexOS comes in: "IBM announced the adoption of FlexOS... as the basis of their IBM 4690 OS..." Ok, FlexOS was used for a different one I didn't look up because Kroger didn't use it. So, you're saying I'm ignorant about OS's because I didn't study a proprietary OS (FlexOS) I've never seen, the local store didn't use, and that was likely inferior to most RTOS's I know of? I'm not sure what your aim was.
jlgaddis 8y ago
Slightly related, many fast-food restaurants are also ran on Linux (back-end server in the restaurant, the registers that connect to them, etc.). Taco Bell's system runs on "Taco Bell Linux" (or did, anyways, 10 years or so ago). I have a copy of their CD installation discs somewhere, I meant to look into it to see what distro they were building on top of but I never got around to it.

SEJeff 8y ago

Do you have a source for this by chance?

jchw 8y ago
I don't have a source but I know the IBM SurePOS units at Kmart indeed ran an old version of SuSE Linux.
quiq 8y ago
Anecdotal, but I remember ~4 years ago working at Walmart as a summer job. The handheld scanners (telzon/gemini) you see employees with would boot to SUSE. A lot of back office software like employee schedules and permissions with those handhelds were still managed with what looked like curses based stuff.
apazgo 8y ago
We have around 30k machines running sles in production (stores) around the world. Deployed around 4000 more a couple of weeks ago, so yes, it exists for sure. Not in the US tho.
nickpsecurity 8y ago
Just watch the screens of anything the companies use when you're in there. Look at the model numbers and Google them. You'll find a lot given most aren't that creative: they do a customized version of the default, enterprise offering. For instance, a restarting computer at the local Kroger where I shop said IBM SurePOS. Looking it up, it turns out some group tried to make a concurrent version of DOS that IBM modified into a specialized OS for POS's. Recently, they upgraded to touchscreens running Linux on Fujitsu boxes. The GUI is ugly, slow, and has the tell-tell coffee mug in corner of dialogs. Appears Kroger, always slow as can be, got on Java desktop bandwagon just as everyone else chasing fads were leaving it for stuff like web apps or Electron. The self-checkouts have a Windows loading screen. Probably was WinXP Embedded given they're old. The handhelds use mainframe-era, terminal apps. Their computers at customer service are thin clients from HP at this location. I think one said "Iceweasel" one time. The checkout predictor thing with the three balls on monitor showed something Linux-related one time. If you ask employees, you'll get SCO OpenServer, AS/400, mainframe, and a pile of random apps with web interfaces. I don't know what they run. One employee told me email and web browsers load in what must be VM's that take 5-10 min to load on the thin clients. It must be unbearable. So, Kroger certainly uses plenty of Linux with mission-critical services being on it. Their choices for inventory and desktop GUI's also hint they're pretty backwards in their practices. I'm not sure about the others since I mostly shop at Kroger.
- voxadam 8y ago
  Didn't Fujitsu buy IBM's SurePOS division a few years ago?
  - nickpsecurity 8y ago
    Toshiba did. The part of Toshiba that does point-of-sale and such bought the part of IBM that does same things. Made the Fujitsu machines replacing IBM's a bit more confusing but it's Linux-based now. Should run on about anything. Maybe they just really wanted Fujitsu hardware for some reason. Maybe they got a lot in an auction or something. (shrugs)
- lproven 8y ago
  > some group tried to make a concurrent version of DOS I think you really do not know much about the history of PC operating systems. IBM licensed Digital Research's real-time OS, FlexOS, for its point-of-sale machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexOS FlexOS is related to DR's Concurrent DOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiuser_DOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiuser_DOS ... which was the descendant of Concurrent CP/M, which was the offspring of CP/M-86, one of the 3 original OSes at launch for the IBM PC in 1981 (along with PC DOS and the UCSD p-System). CP/M was the original industry-standard OS for 8080 micros. It is what MS-DOS is a knock-off version of -- MS-DOS was licensed from SCP, whose QDOS was a copy of CP/M. "Some group tried," indeed. This is the original OS company, successfully trading and dominating the industry when Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Micro-Soft.
  - nickpsecurity 8y ago
    "I think you really do not know much about the history of PC operating systems." Well, that's a big assumption and rude at the same time. I post a lot here about the history of operating systems. I'm well aware of DOS and CP/M. I know little to nothing about Concurrent DOS or FlexOS because of no need. So, let's look at your link: "IBM licensed Digital Research's real-time OS, FlexOS, for its point-of-sale machines." ...the article you link says "IBM originally chose DR Concurrent DOS 286 as the basis of their IBM 4680 computer for IBM Plant System products and Point-of-Sale terminals..." The original source I read those terminals said they were based on Concurrent DOS. So does my comment and this link. Clearly, I did some research. Kroger's POS's also said IBM 4680. Let's see where FlexOS comes in: "IBM announced the adoption of FlexOS... as the basis of their IBM 4690 OS..." Ok, FlexOS was used for a different one I didn't look up because Kroger didn't use it. So, you're saying I'm ignorant about OS's because I didn't study a proprietary OS (FlexOS) I've never seen, the local store didn't use, and that was likely inferior to most RTOS's I know of? I'm not sure what your aim was.

jlgaddis 8y ago

Slightly related, many fast-food restaurants are also ran on Linux (back-end server in the restaurant, the registers that connect to them, etc.). Taco Bell's system runs on "Taco Bell Linux" (or did, anyways, 10 years or so ago). I have a copy of their CD installation discs somewhere, I meant to look into it to see what distro they were building on top of but I never got around to it.