Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "Brodie Robertson" channel.

  1. One biggie in aerospace is, they demand and use a hard realtime OS. A delayed response is a wrong response, as we're talking about critical systems. If the entertainment system, which is not integrated with the critical flight systems decides to circle itself around in swapland, it's not a big deal, so the passengers don't get their e-mail, game or movie. With the flight controls, that becomes a huge, lethal deal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_operating_system The entirety of design is essentially opposite what Linux was designed to do. One would have to write an entirely new kernel, the time sharing would have to be entirely redesigned, swap goes away and timing tightened way up. All of which is doable, really, as one is able to change out any part of the sourcecode. Hence, why there is RTLinux. Microkernel, scheduling, all already done, as someone needed a realtime OS and they developed it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTLinux And this was typed on a Ubuntu 22.04 Linux system. I only keep one Windows machine around, largely for medical applications that don't have Linux equivalents. I usually keep one *BSD box around as well, although currently I don't. Each OS to its strengths and purpose.
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  2. Insufficient bang path.
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  3. I'm reminded of Microsoft's battle with Sun. My Java is the only way, which lost, as Sun did originate the damned thing. Here, not as simple, but close. But now, it's binary blobs should be illegal! And none have ever tried to figure out a computer without an OS in person, save to load tons of such blobs and complain about them.
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  4. Oh, come on now, you can trust Microsoft to only snoop on days that end in Y in English.
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  5. I can tell from the objections that the author never heard of RTLinux, which does everything he griped Linux didn't do.
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  6. There's an old joke. A bug with seniority is a feature.
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  7. The entire lecture was bogus, likely entirely out of ignorance. First, the entire train of objections is akin to complaining that Linux isn't a hammer, when a screwdriver is required. It's neither, it's a general purpose OS, for the most part. Aerospace requires a realtime OS, with the smallest of jitter in task processing possible. Jitter being the variable time between an input and answer from the software and delayed answers are considered hard bad answers. A good example was Apollo 11, with the approach radar on while landing, the computer overloaded and incessantly rebooted. Thankfully, Armstrong had taken full manual control early on, not trusting the relatively new computer. Had he not, the reboot would've cut power to the engines and history would've recorded a fatal crash on the lunar surface. The cause, radar data simply overloaded the computer with data, buffers overflowed and the primitive computer simply kept rebooting and alarming. Which on errors, it was supposed to do. Now, there are realtime Linux distros available, one is actually in use by the US Air Force, which puts to lie everything in their presentation. It already exists, it's in use and it's certified. It's also novel enough to fly under their radar, which is unsurprising, as novel things aren't exactly welcome in aerospace. New can mean buggy, buggy can mean failed projects, as nearly happened with the F-35. Remember when they had trouble booting up the entire airplane? AFIK, there are around a half dozen realtime OS vendors out there, two are Linux based and relatively new. Not a one will ever even remotely become popular, as they're not designed for regular server usage or workstation usage, they're for specialized custom applications like running equipment like airplanes and their subsystems. They'd suck at, say, running sendmail, but excel at their purpose of monitoring a thousand sensors and balancing an aircraft's flight. And the Wind River VxWorks OS, also open source, has gone to Jupiter and Mars. The RTLinux line was acquired and revamped, but originated in 2007, languished a bit around 2011, acquired and reshuffled a bit, but has managed to have annual releases since its origination. Their RTLinux product is used by Schneider Electric and Toshiba, their VxWorks used by the USAF, NASA and more. Linux is a general purpose OS, it's great as a server or desktop, even for fairly non-critical non-realtime tasks. Inside of a datacenter, it's a major workhorse, happily sitting alongside *BSD servers and more. But, in aerospace, one needs an entirely different animal, we're into round cow land, compared. Comparing the two entirely different technologies is like comparing a round cow to a bowling ball. Both are round, but that's about it. Well, off to fix my MythTV box. Looks like a kernel update borked the boot. Not ideal for an aerospace system, where borking a boot system in orbit around Jupiter would kind of be a big deal. But then, space probes tend to make really lousy home entertainment centers. Because, a hammer is not a screwdriver. A general purpose OS is not a realtime OS. And while I could take over Johnny's paper route with a large dump truck, it'd hardly be practical. Hell, Johnny got made redundant long ago anyway. I'm sure that before long, my morning paper will be getting delivered by a realtime OS operated drone to my neighbor's front door... ;) But my space probe will happily orbit Jupiter, studying away in a radiation environment that's absolutely obscene.
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  8. Alas, such "nonsense" has turned into major issues. As any hostage for their own encrypted data. Got side bit by that, my lawyer got entangled by hostageware. Further entangled by my association and well, legalese from hell contracts. Poor bastard got to do without business with his computers for a month before the Department got it untangled. But, it's all nonsense, vapor, ignore paralyzed governments, it's all a myth. Yes, a fair amount of announcements are hyperbole, but reality is, don't click on the motherfucking links until checked by yourself. Even if it requires calling the helldesk.
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  9.  @framegrace1  from what I’ve saw, the US Air Force is using it in some capacity.. Kind of puts to lie everything in that presentation, not by intent probably, just from ignorance of something relatively new. That project had to be a huge pain though, with that many changes and shifts of focus! Kinda looks like it was fun.
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  10.  @SteveVanderLeest  and there are some Linux compatible distros that are DAL A, such as LynxOS. But, it a rarified market.
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  11.  @SteveVanderLeest  sounds as if the objectors hadn't heard of them, which is a bit odd. It's not as if WindRiver and LynxOS are unknowns. Probably more of an oversight than anything. But, the commercial Linux OS distros, yeah, that's a great big no. I shudder just thinking of a process getting stuck in swapland in a control loop...
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  12.  @SteveVanderLeest  true, it's listed as Linux compatible. All of the realtime OS's can't use a standard Linux kernel as well. One can use a screwdriver as a hammer, but one cannot do so safely. The right tool for the right job. :)
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  13.  @arthurmoore9488  if a simulator crashes, who cares? If an aircraft crashes into a hospital or apartment complex, it's a bit of a big deal, isn't it?
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  14. Well, one upside to this feature is, there will be a DISA implementation guide for the US DoD that shows how to properly neuter that feature permanently. Microsoft really doesn't want to lose one of its biggest customers. Alas, that guide largely won't be available to the general public. :/ That all said, my personal systems are already Linux based and I only keep one Windows machine around for specific legacy work and formerly, for accessing some medical equipment that now only can be accessed by a smartphone.
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