4 ms·

It seems to me to be ideal for automation, yet most seem to be using Linux. This is probably due to the Open Source status I suspect.

fouc 8y ago
Photon GUI alone to replace X windows would be amazing.
- Animats 8y ago
  I used it as my main desktop system for three years while working on a self-driving vehicle, in 2003-2005. There were versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office, so you had all the essentials. It's OK, but would feel dated to most users. The really great feature is that there is no lag. The consistency of QNX is impressive. This is a real-time system, not a warmed-over time sharing system. No swapping or paging. Proper CPU scheduling. So little "why did it do that?"
  - sgt 8y ago
    Tesla is using Linux and Qt UI which seems to work pretty well.
  - fouc 8y ago
    It was amazing to be able to restart the GUI without even impacting the apps that were running.
  - zozbot123 8y ago
    >... No swapping or paging. ... That's more of a function of your hardware resources and workload than the OS architecture you're running. E.g. a lightweight Linux desktop installed on present-day hardware will literally run with zero swap use - in fact, it will cache most disk access. (Unless you open something that hogs RAM, of course.) That may not be literally a soft-RT system, but from the user's POV it's just as snappy as one.
  - spamizbad 8y ago
    You must have been throwing a lot of CPU power at it, or perhaps I've just been extremely unlucky: I've used multiple QNX based user interfaces and the one thing they all had in common was their lagginess and unresponsiveness.
    - fouc 8y ago
      What version did you try? When I tried QNX 4.24 on my desktop computer, I think it might've been on a 125 mhz pentium? Or a 486. The Photon GUI was snappy.
      - Animats 8y ago
        6.71, on a Pentium III.
derefr 8y ago
If you’re talking about automation like in factories or appliances or robots, “most” are actually using either VxWorks, Integrity, or ThreadX. (IoT devices certainly use Linux, but mostly for the same reason they do everything else: to decrease their BOM while still seeming “feature-rich.”)
glenrivard 8y ago
Also where the momentum is at is using Linux. More are moving from proprietary solutions to using Linux. Suspect that will continue to happen.
StrictDabbler 8y ago
Tridium/Niagara AX is the leading supplier-agnostic integration software for building automation. It's huge and it's QNX. Air-handlers, fluid-coolers, chillers, etc., are now frequently powered by a JACE (an embedded controller running the Niagara platform on the QNX Neutrino microkernel). JACEs are used to handle integrating BACnet equipment and coordination across sites. It's quietly becoming the standard way to do things if you're not just going to hand Honeywell or Trane a million dollars and hope things turn out ok.

fouc 8y ago

Photon GUI alone to replace X windows would be amazing.

Animats 8y ago
I used it as my main desktop system for three years while working on a self-driving vehicle, in 2003-2005. There were versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office, so you had all the essentials. It's OK, but would feel dated to most users. The really great feature is that there is no lag. The consistency of QNX is impressive. This is a real-time system, not a warmed-over time sharing system. No swapping or paging. Proper CPU scheduling. So little "why did it do that?"
- sgt 8y ago
  Tesla is using Linux and Qt UI which seems to work pretty well.
- fouc 8y ago
  It was amazing to be able to restart the GUI without even impacting the apps that were running.
- zozbot123 8y ago
  >... No swapping or paging. ... That's more of a function of your hardware resources and workload than the OS architecture you're running. E.g. a lightweight Linux desktop installed on present-day hardware will literally run with zero swap use - in fact, it will cache most disk access. (Unless you open something that hogs RAM, of course.) That may not be literally a soft-RT system, but from the user's POV it's just as snappy as one.
- spamizbad 8y ago
  You must have been throwing a lot of CPU power at it, or perhaps I've just been extremely unlucky: I've used multiple QNX based user interfaces and the one thing they all had in common was their lagginess and unresponsiveness.
  - fouc 8y ago
    What version did you try? When I tried QNX 4.24 on my desktop computer, I think it might've been on a 125 mhz pentium? Or a 486. The Photon GUI was snappy.
    - Animats 8y ago
      6.71, on a Pentium III.

derefr 8y ago

If you’re talking about automation like in factories or appliances or robots, “most” are actually using either VxWorks, Integrity, or ThreadX. (IoT devices certainly use Linux, but mostly for the same reason they do everything else: to decrease their BOM while still seeming “feature-rich.”)

glenrivard 8y ago

Also where the momentum is at is using Linux. More are moving from proprietary solutions to using Linux. Suspect that will continue to happen.

StrictDabbler 8y ago

Tridium/Niagara AX is the leading supplier-agnostic integration software for building automation. It's huge and it's QNX. Air-handlers, fluid-coolers, chillers, etc., are now frequently powered by a JACE (an embedded controller running the Niagara platform on the QNX Neutrino microkernel). JACEs are used to handle integrating BACnet equipment and coordination across sites. It's quietly becoming the standard way to do things if you're not just going to hand Honeywell or Trane a million dollars and hope things turn out ok.