[Sussex] Improving on UNIX

[Geoff Teale]

Andrew wrote:
-------------
> First I have to say this, I don't know and I can not find out 
> as there some
> working being done on the Internet connection today.  As for Satellite
> decoder (SkyDigital) I thought there OS was developed by an 
> British firm for
> Sky.  As such Sky owns the OS them self's.

There is a great deal of variation across companies and systems.  Microsoft
actively market the fact that 60% of the worlds satellite decoders now run
versions of NT and/or XP embedded - it's not as visible as X-Box but
Microsoft is trying to force it's way into the embedded market - and for a
lot of companies it is as sensible choice as LINUX is - it's not as good as
QNX, but it performs as well as VxWorks and is cheaper than both QNX and
VxWorks in terms of licensing and the salaries for your staff - the
arguement is that any old Windows developer can develop and embedded system
- if you believe that hype then you are going to make some very bad consumer
devices.
 
> X-Box2 have new filing system has more to do with Microsoft 
> plans of DRM
> then anything else.  It would just make it lot harder to get 
> around.  Also
> Microsoft also wants CPU's to be adapted instruction set, so 
> where one CPU
> command might be on x86 00010 it would be 10010 and command 
> that is 10010
> would be 00010.  Those making harder to put something like 
> Linux on there.
> 
> Microsoft had already done something like that with hard 
> drives in XBox and
> change command set but people just worked it all out in time.

How very petty.  Ultimately these things will be resolved.  Frankly running
LINUX on consoles is a _toy_ project - it's useful if you happen to have one
and want to look at LINUX, but it's really a silly way to go about getting a
PC.

-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org

"make music like mercy that gives what it is and has nothing to prove"
 - Ani DiFranco "Up Up Up Up Up Up"


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