3 ms·

> QnX has shown the strength of microkernels for decades Could you elaborate on this one please?

jacquesm 8y ago
QnX is so common that if you removed it from the industrial world the world would literally grind to a halt. Machinery and vehicles would stop moving, factories would stop producing, chemical plants would (hopefully!) shut down and airplanes would no longer take off (or would have a much harder time trying to land without the usual guidance systems), boats would drift and messages would stop being sent through many systems that you probably would never have heard of. For one example of such a system: A computerized way to communicate the availability of cargo and space to brokers all over the world, on a good Monday morning several million such messages are sent with a guaranteed maximum time between the first and the last such message sent (to ensure a fair market). QnX is extremely pervasive and it - and other OS's like it - are so reliable that people tend to forget the systems it powers. Blackberry made a pretty smart move with their acquisition of QnX, pity that it did not end with QnX being open sourced, that would have been very nice.
- alexandercrohde 8y ago
  Just as a casual reader of this comment, a few tips: - The rhetoric about the world grinding to a halt isn't really pertinent and makes you look unreliable. Also, no, not "literally." I think what you're getting at is that it's chosen for high-reliability systems, with the implication being that it's chosen for its superior reliability(?) - But I say this because it sounds like you have some knowledge as to how this obscure microkernal is used and sharing that is valuable to the community. It's just a shame if the message gets lost in the delivery.
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    The world really would literally grind to a halt, you are severely under-estimating how common this particular OS is. It has been the embedded system of choice for a very large variety of applications, it is anything but obscure it is just obscure to those who spend their time working on web stuff but in industry you would come across it (and RTOS: https://rtos.com/ https://rtos.com/) very often. Neither of those names will ring a bell for people who spend their days with your usual web toolsets.
    - nickpsecurity 8y ago
      It really wouldnt. They'd keep using the OS and tools to sustain their systems until they got a replacement vendor supporting QNX or replaced the systems with non-QNX software. They might also sue original supplier. So, rather grind to a halt, it would all continue running in legacy mode, users would spend more money, and it gets supported or replaced. Lots of precedents for that sort of thing. Between acquisition price and QNX's revenues, it's unlikely support will be terminated any time soon. We wont get to see the hypothetical tested unless RIM bankrupts with nobody acquiring and supporting their assets. That a losing company acquired QNX did worry me a bit, though.
- iamcreasy 8y ago
  Is there an open source alternative to QnX?
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    It's sitting on my hard drive, never released. And I probably never will.

QnX is so common that if you removed it from the industrial world the world would literally grind to a halt. Machinery and vehicles would stop moving, factories would stop producing, chemical plants would (hopefully!) shut down and airplanes would no longer take off (or would have a much harder time trying to land without the usual guidance systems), boats would drift and messages would stop being sent through many systems that you probably would never have heard of. For one example of such a system: A computerized way to communicate the availability of cargo and space to brokers all over the world, on a good Monday morning several million such messages are sent with a guaranteed maximum time between the first and the last such message sent (to ensure a fair market). QnX is extremely pervasive and it - and other OS's like it - are so reliable that people tend to forget the systems it powers. Blackberry made a pretty smart move with their acquisition of QnX, pity that it did not end with QnX being open sourced, that would have been very nice.

alexandercrohde 8y ago
Just as a casual reader of this comment, a few tips: - The rhetoric about the world grinding to a halt isn't really pertinent and makes you look unreliable. Also, no, not "literally." I think what you're getting at is that it's chosen for high-reliability systems, with the implication being that it's chosen for its superior reliability(?) - But I say this because it sounds like you have some knowledge as to how this obscure microkernal is used and sharing that is valuable to the community. It's just a shame if the message gets lost in the delivery.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  The world really would literally grind to a halt, you are severely under-estimating how common this particular OS is. It has been the embedded system of choice for a very large variety of applications, it is anything but obscure it is just obscure to those who spend their time working on web stuff but in industry you would come across it (and RTOS: https://rtos.com/ https://rtos.com/) very often. Neither of those names will ring a bell for people who spend their days with your usual web toolsets.
  - nickpsecurity 8y ago
    It really wouldnt. They'd keep using the OS and tools to sustain their systems until they got a replacement vendor supporting QNX or replaced the systems with non-QNX software. They might also sue original supplier. So, rather grind to a halt, it would all continue running in legacy mode, users would spend more money, and it gets supported or replaced. Lots of precedents for that sort of thing. Between acquisition price and QNX's revenues, it's unlikely support will be terminated any time soon. We wont get to see the hypothetical tested unless RIM bankrupts with nobody acquiring and supporting their assets. That a losing company acquired QNX did worry me a bit, though.
iamcreasy 8y ago
Is there an open source alternative to QnX?
- jacquesm 8y ago
  It's sitting on my hard drive, never released. And I probably never will.