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Another Win For Linux At The Cash Register
Matt Lupfer writes, "According to CNET, MaxSpeed, a
California-based networked cash register manufacturer used at places such as Little Caesars,
Goodyear Tire, CVS Drugstores and Harley-Davidson, will begin moving
its product line to Linux-based systems. [MaxSpeed CEO Wie Ching] says, 'Linux is
the wave of the future. And you can't beat the price.'"
(Who moderated *that* up?) Think of the body of manufacturers whose hardware will be automatically installed in hundreds upon thousands of locations with a single sale. It'll keep the vid card people, the bios people, etc. really motivated to keep in good stead with the community.
Crowbarring all the custom needs of a POS system into a POS (different acronym) operating system is not my idea of fun. I feel sorry for those SASI people. A friend of mine worked there very briefly and he said that it was no picnic there...
Their previous system seemed to be pretty good. It had barcode scanning, and all the other stuff. I see nothing useful in the new system that the old one didn't provide. However, the new system uses a touchscreen for input, and provides feedback with the standard Windows sounds (ding.wav, etc.)
The touchscreen is extremely inconvenient for input, as I was told by a girl who works there. And the sounds... well, I'm sure that you can imagine how it feels to hear that "ding" sound a few thousand times every day.
Anyone know what's going on?
--
Why is it that so many trolls are on the Hemos is a child molester trip.
Most of the good troll opportunities went out the window after Sengan left. Give it some time, I'm sure things will diversify naturally. :)
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
The cash register systems at Radio Shack are still Windows based, although I think RS is transitioning their back-office systems. Let's hope these open source cash register systems hit it big, since once the cash registers are on linux, more and more of the back-office systems will be driven to open standard systems, something that Microsoft hasn't been good at retaining control over.
The real coup is if some Linux providers work on some sort of embedded Linux. The efforts made to port Linux to micro-systems like PalmOS should help in this arena. But the idea would be if we could flash Linux entirely to ROM. This would take some market share away from folks like OS9 (not MacOS9!), QNX, etc.
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GAT d-- a? C++ UX+ L++ P++ E--- W+++$ N++ o-- !K !w O---- M++$ !V PS++
The way I see it, Linux is an operating system with a cool development system
I don't believe that there is a single overriding "goal" that everyone who uses Linux (or even a clear majority) can be said to share. Instead, there are lots of smaller groups within the circle of those who use Linux, who may have some of the goals you mention.
And as for mindshare
You're right, the guy behind the counter probably doesn't care what OS runs his register, but then again, he probably appreciates a system that doesn't crash much.
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Just a guess really
I've never seen this on a large scale, but would it be feasble to have hardware to allow 50 keyboards, mice, monitors to be hooked into a Linux server, and have each one be running separately? So there could be 50 users with 50 different displays doing their office or school work.
Obviously, the server would have to be completely massive, which some kind of super video card system (128MBx2 SLI rig?). But it would still be less expensive than buying 50 whole computers, and it would be a ton easier to make upgrades to.
Has anyone done something similar?
Imagine a beowolf cluster of cash registers. You could have multiple people buying things AT THE SAME TIME! Wow!
Why don't you ask ETOYS.COM? They have been running there E-Comerce applications on Linux since day one. Just for starters. Ask Compaq. They only recomend running SAP-R/3 on Linux for Application Servers that support over 1,000 concerent users. Other wise Unix, NT or OS/390 is fine. Just to name two.
The israeli company PointOfSale which produces software for retail shops and likewise, that has been so far exclusively written in M$++ also decided to port its application to Linux. I was there for a job interview and they were offering me to lead the team developing the port (on quite nice conditions BTW). Still porting MFC to gtk wasn't what I wanted so I refused, but it was nice to see another company turning its face towards Linux, as they were realizing (as I was told) it'll be much cheaper for both the company to develop and to shops to buy and maintain a Linux-based system than a MS-based one
-- "If you had fallen into a shit pit during a battle, lick yourself off and move on." - Jaroslav Hasek
, but I don't understand your objection to someone using Linux in this application.
I have no objection to them using it, In fact I said in my inital post that It was great for them. But it really isn't that the fact that they were wasn't really that interesting.
Amber Yuan 2k A.D
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
Ok, so a bunch of Cash registers are running Linux now. Great. Does that help the 'cause' in any way? I mean, its not like RedHat or VA or anyone else is going to be getting money for these things like we would if it was a closed source thing. While I'm sure its great for the company producing these things. It really shouldn't matter to us. At most, we might get a few kernel patches or something out of the programmers there.
If Microsoft or sun got this deal, it would be great for them, it would mean tons of money in licenses. But for us, its nothing.
I think threes a bit more to world domination then simply the raw number of CPUs running Linux. Is having it run on millions of Cash registers going to help get software ported?
Amber Yuan 2k A.D
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
Hmm... you posted here too huh?   You certainly are persistent despite the quoting of the Slashdot FAQ.
/. when it is being /.'d let alone to have spam showing up as +1.
Moderators - please moderate the parent down as spam.   It's bad enough getting to
Thank you.
-- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."
This is a really good thing - I've used Maxspeed (with VM386 multiuser DOS - ok - but the install has been in place 7 years and running strong) and they make fab product. They may not be Big and'Active' but they are responsible and worth a look.
I'd love to use Linux for cash registers, because I'd like to have a point-of-sale system that was cheap...
This all ties back to the I-Opener discussion: why aren't there any super-cheap Linux-based kiosk systems available? Surely there's a market for these!
Like cash registers, ATMs are also just kiosks with a slot. You can just go out and buy an ATM, you know: you're responsible for filling it with money, and it runs software that knows how to authenticate itself to the banks. There's no reason this couldn't be a Linux system too, instead of being overpriced specialized hardware.
There's a big NUMSAUI ("Not Until My Suppliers Are Using It"] problem with any particular operating system, file format, interface, etc.
You still hear lots of "industry analysts" (mind my scare quotes; I know a lot of them are fine, smart people, but it's the bad apples that stand out) that say Linux "isn't ready for the enterprise" or repeat silly FUD about the dangers of fragmentation. (I'm not saying that danger doesn't exist -- only that even legitimate complaints are often applied out of context.)
And it's not just the number of CPUs running it, it's a) public acceptance, or at least that subset of the public which forms opinions about purchasing computers and b) jobs. If there are thoursands of companies using free / Free software to build their apps and run them on, it means a different type of job market than one in which open-source stuff is viewed as a novelty.
And, my favorite is that the more OSes are experimented with, the more incentive people will have to create documents / data sets that aren't tied to only one platform, which should make it easier for programmers to experiment with The Best Way to do things in pragmatic and not only experimental contexts.
Just thoughts,
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
I worked at a Little Caesar's. It was a few years ago, but the cash register wasn't anything special. You just had that small screen that displayed the prices. The input? A keypad with many buttons. Althought, we never used half of them. The ones we did use were basically overload by hitting "Large" then "Crazy Bread" or "Small" then "Crazy Bread". With a little practice on the register, you could punch in orders with one hand faster than the receipt could print.
I couldn't find the specs for their cash registers, but I wouldn't want an LCD screen (It'd get oil, flour, or just cracked by a customer) or a computer that required a fan. The (non-computer) fans always had grease in them, clogged them up good.
Even though it was a crappy system, people still had trouble with it (I was always ask to change the printer ribbon).
Maybe they're making it a different design than I'm assuming. Of course, having a Perl script to generate reports on various sales (you have to make reports on how much you sold per hour on average for the last four weeks, and how many of a certain item, such as medium pops, you sold each day). Disclaimer: I worked at an LC inside a K-mart, so the independent LC's may have different tills.
Also, my store couldn't get the damn Icee machine working on a consistent basis (it had a power switch, two defrost knobs (one for each side), and two dispenser levers), do you think they could get a Linux box to work all the time?
---------------------
Do not provoke me to violence for you could no more evade my wrath than you could your own shadow.
The U.S. Postal Service? C'mon, couldn't you have gone and picked an organization held in higher regard than the USPS? Like, say, oh I dunno, ValuJet, CyberPromotions, or maybe Juggs Magazine? :)
;-)   I bow down in humble admiration.   :-)
/. since it's along the lines of this confusing article about cash registers and Linux).   And don't say it...   "that's why the weather forecasting is so fscked up".   ;-)
;-)
Wow.   The Zico!   As much as I've seen your many posts, I finally get to respond to you...
Okay... how about Accuweather and Linux (from some article I saw that I'm surprised didn't get posted on
Okay, here's one - Burlington Coat Factory.   This example relates directly to the article as this company uses Linux for their POS boxes.
'Nuff said.  
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
Cheers to you too... heh heh.
-- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."
And then there's the issue of security. Yeah, the Linux community does a good job of patching bugs and other unintentional errors. But what you really have to be on the look out for now is intentional security violations. Going with an open source operating system is like giving out the keys. Whose to stop someone from passing of a 'trojan' kernel? These registers will be networked, so it's not like they couldn't be broken into. Scary.
;-)
Hmmm... I don't know if I've been sucked in by a troll or perhaps you should be modded up to Funny or whatever... maybe so.   But this is just an fyi anyway to those not knowing or if you are truly sincere:   Did you know that every fscking piece of snail mail that those in the US of A send through the U.S. Postal Service is sorted using a Linux box?
Just responding to your issues with security and not meant to be a flame...
-- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."