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QNX RtP 6.2 World Preview
Jason writes: "OSNews is running an exclusive preview of the brand new version 6.2 of the QNX realtime operating system. The article is going through the installation process, the Photon user interface (lots of screenshots included), the internals, and the advantages and disadvantages of the OS as a desktop system. QNX RtP 6.2 is expected to be released for free (for non commercial usage) before March."
- Does the calculator have a paste feature? This is something really lacking in KDE's one. And it bugs me when I can't be bothered adding two file sizes together (or typing the sizes into the calculator)
- Will the interface always be as consistent as it is in the screenshots? - the Macs at school always had consistent user interfaces. With the advent of Microsoft Domination we witnesed horrible UIs that were exremely inconsistent. They can't even make their own apps have the same UI as their OS.
- Does the web browser perform as fast as the other ones that are currently in use? (IE, Konqueror, Mozilla, Opera) and can it render the majority of pages that Konqueror can?
These are just some things that people notice.These shots of QNX make is seem like they've missed out all the bad features of other OS's and included all the good ones. I like it.
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Here is a banner example that sometimes rewriting software does make sense. Since 1985, QNX has rewitten thier OS three times, first QNX 2.x, then QNX 4.x and now RTP 6.x. All rewritten from scratch and all better than the last.
Its a real time operating system for embedded devices. The PC based platform is for development to help you rather than plugging directly into the RS232 port of your dev kit.
The questions you ask are nothing to do with an RTOS but looking at it from the perspective of "Oh look a Windows competitor" this is NOT in the same market as even WindowsCE, although there is some overlap. The PC based platform is to aid development, it can be stripped down to a delivery box but this is not for Joe Sixpack PC user.
The real question is "Can anything else run in a couple of Megs of RAM..... or less" and have guarenteed delivery times on tasks. The answer for Linux and MS-Windows is NOPE.
THIS IS NOT A DESKTOP OS.
Sorry for shouting but people should
a) Read the article
b) Understand that MS-Windows and bloatware are not the most interesting market in the world.
c) Realise that cut and paste on a VCR is a silly idea.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
"He" is a she - Eugenia Loli-Queru. Eugenia is Editor-in-Chief of OSNews.com. Before moving to the U.S. she was a web-designer in the U.K., ported more than 80 Linux/Posix/DOS applications to BeOS and founded the BeUnited BeOS Development Movement in April 2000.
As for a background in embedded systems, I'm not sure - but she is certainly more qualified than you suggest, having experience with many OSes incl. BeOS, AtheOS and FreeBSD among others...
I guess this is a peek at what the new Amiga could have been. It doesn't look as nice as 3.9, though the underlying technology is pretty neat.
"However, I somewhat got the feeling from the new version that QSSL is moving even more far away from a "desktop QNX." " QNX as a company has no interest in the desktop market and all that it entails. (eg. tech. support, updates, etc.) It is mainly concerned with providing a realtime system for industry as well as providing a decent developement environment for the software that will go into those systems.
Eye, says I.
At one time QNX's realtime features worked in favor of its use on the desktop. That was 20 years ago, when processors were wimpy, and attempts to create GUIs based on DOS had pathetic results.
Of course, QNX's window of opportunity to compete with NT, or even Linux, has long since closed, So the development efforts and the marketing noise emphasize embedded and realtime apps. That's why the Photon GUI is so dated, and the interactive apps are starting to clash with the desktop apps. These are things that could be fixed, but never will be. The reasons are economic, not technical
The beauty of QNX and RtP is the microkernel design (let the flamewars begin). The OS is exteremly resilient because the core kernel just acts as a messaging bus for all other services that run in the user space. For example, should your filesystem crash you can just restart it like any other user space process!. Alternatively if you don't need multitasking capabilities but memory and hardware are at premium you simply don't run proc and don't have to put up with the overhead of a process scheduler. QNX is such a clean design it puts other microkernels to shame. Rock on QSSL.
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
Could you imagine the uproar if Microsoft tried to charge a license fee before you could release an application that ran on the operating system?
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
*sigh*
You're absolutely fixated on the eye-candy, aren't you? The point is that QNX is NOT ABOUT THE GUI *OR* THE DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT!
It's like asking what sort of graphics card is on the database server. Interesting, maybe, but the whole point is NOT about the graphics.
They are in NO WAY interested with QNX in taking over the desktop market! The GUI is ONLY there to aid EMBEDDED APP DEVELOPMENT! Nothing more! QNX RtP is NOT aimed at being a full-featured desktop Personal Computer replacement, ala Linux. The only thing the GUI would be good for is an Internet Appliance environment where most of the interaction is through a graphical engine.
But guess what! Most of the time QNX is used, you don't see much in the way of graphics, and even less of any sort of a windowed environment. See that gas pump running QNX? Yeah, it's got a pretty graphics display showing a car going through a car wash, but you *certainly* don't cut and paste anything.
And QNX would *only* love for you to use QNX as your desktop because you would hopefully be developing an embedded app.