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What Is The Most Popular OS in the World?

Roland Piquepaille writes "If your answer is Windows, you're plain wrong. It's ITRON, a Japanese real-time OS kernel that can be customized for any small-scale embedded systems. According to LinuxInsider.com, it is used by more than 3 billion microprocessors found in mobile phones, digital cameras, CD players and many other electronic devices including even satellites. The article looks at the competition in this market, notably RTLinux, the real-time version of Linux, and T-Linux, an environment for running middleware. This last effort could lead to the eTRON chip, an encryption device that offers secure data transfer across wireless networks and the Internet. One thing is sure for this market: the future is definitively open-source. This overview contains more details and external references."

19 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Featured on SlashDot before by Mwongozi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here and here.

  2. Cute. by echucker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Change the rules to suit the propaganda. When people are talking about OS', 99.44% of the time they're referring to PCs. Is it so hard to admit that Windows has huge marketshare simply because it's what has been put in front of the end user?

    1. Re:Cute. by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ... and then you have to take into account the fact that they use the words "most popular" when practically nobody has even heard of it. Most used, sure, but isn't a requriement for popularity having people actually know about it?

      -- Dr. Eldarion --

    2. Re:Cute. by AsparagusChallenge · · Score: 2, Interesting

      When people interact with a computer, they're interacting with the OS

      Actually the OS interacts with the programs; the programs interact then with people. People never interact with the OS.

      Which lead us to: the OS with W is not really "popular" (in the sense of "Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general"), but user level applications built upon it are; with your "they just wanna nuke their burrito" you're completely right just in the same sense. ITRON can then be the "most popular" for the people that matters: the ones that implement application for the OS.

    3. Re:Cute. by tambo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually the OS interacts with the programs; the programs interact then with people. People never interact with the OS.

      From a CS perspective, you're correct - the OS is designed to manage resources and send program requests down to the microkernel/ISA level.

      But from the contemporary perspective, the OS is a much richer bundle. Technically, using the Start Menu, manipulating files and folders on your desktop, and navigating folders in Explorer = interactions with a "program"; so are printer daemons/print queues, network interfaces, and the Control Panel. Even cutting-and-pasting is technically interacting with the clipboard "program". But these programs are so tightly bound to the OS that it's difficult to imagine a workable modern OS without them. Ask any user on the street, even sophisticated ones, what "program" they're using in these cases, and they'll all say "Windows" (or OS/X, or whatever OS they're running.)

      If by "popular" you mean prolific, as does the author, then sure, ITRON and other embedded OS's are clear winners. But if by "popular" you mean user-recognizable - even software to which users may have developed an affinity - then I think Windows is still the OS of choice worldwide.

      (Note: I'm clearly not a Microsoft shill - a search on my username will reveal posts/responses uniformly bashing Microsoft for a dozen justified reasons.)

      - David Stein

      --
      Computer over. Virus = very yes.
  3. 'most popular'? by m0rphin3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is something 'most popular' when people don't even know it exists? Or if there even is a choice?

    It's like saying water is the 'most popular soft-drink' in the world..

    --
    for great justice
  4. ITRON belief by jackb_guppy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does it believe in the USER?

    And now there is eTRON is coming... Looks like he has been incorporated in the MCP!

  5. Most used DOES NOT equate to most popular here by segmond · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...because the users are ignorant of the underlying OS, thus tron is not the most popular OS but the most widely deployed OS. With that said, this is a duplicate article from the past, and I am sick of slashdot insulting our intelligence with stupid sensational headlines.

    --
    ------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
  6. eTRON in French... by jalet · · Score: 2, Funny

    > This last effort could lead to the eTRON chip

    etron in French means shit.

    reading the article is more funny now, isn't it ?

    --
    Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
  7. RTLinux limitations by gatzke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Did anyone read the part about RTLinux limitations:

    "RTLinux switches tasks in milliseconds, while ITRON switches tasks in microseconds," he said. "RTLinux' footprint is measured in megabytes; ITRON is measured in kilobytes."

    Funny to see someone call a Linux version bloated and slow...

    1. Re:RTLinux limitations by yodaiken@fsmlabs.com · · Score: 3, Informative

      RTLinux switches tasks in microseconds - and not many microseconds.

  8. Re:The future. by Timesprout · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why will it be linux? From the article it appears ITRON has several considerable advantages over its competitors (I'm not sure how they can really be called competitors when ITRON is so dominant). It was designed for this purpose from the ground up and its opensource. With 3 Billion installs there cant be a whole lot wrong with it. Linux is not the be all and end all of operating systems.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  9. Re:What Is The Most Popular OS in the World? by kfg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until, of course, nearly every electronic device that you own that uses computer logic (CD player, car, TV, possibly even your internet connection) stops working.

    You've probably never heard of every amino acid you need either while picking up that two litre bottle of Mountain Dew.

    You'd still regret their absence.

    KFG

  10. Popular is a misleading word... by httpamphibio.us · · Score: 2, Insightful

    TRON is obviously the most populous in terms of all electronic devices there are. In terms of PCs, which is what OS typically refers to, Windows would be the most populous, but in terms of popularity that could go two ways. If you are defining popularity as "suited to the means of the majority" or "frequently encountered or widely accepted" that would obviously be Windows. But, if you define popularity as "commonly liked or approved" that would be Linux for the simple reason that the Linux community is much more vociferous about their passion for the OS than Windows users are. Most Windows users use the OS by default and no because they prefer it to other systems.

    --
    sig.
  11. Re:The future. by Lord_Slepnir · · Score: 5, Funny
    Linux is not the be all and end all of operating systems

    Blasphemy! Say 5 Hail Linus' and kiss the holy penguin!

  12. Is it an OS? by pe1chl · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the ITRON page linked, it is an operating system specification, not an operating system.

    That would make it a competitor of Posix, instead of Linux.

  13. Know about it? by eMartin · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but just think of all of the Windows users who don't know what OS they are using, even though its name is shown on the screen every time the turn on their computers.

  14. It isn't even an OS (singular) by The+Monster · · Score: 2, Informative
    Page 20 of the iITRON4.0 specification says:
    The TRON Specifications define the interface of a computer, not the hardware or software it is founded on. It also defines the interface of the OS, but not the OS itself. . . .
    In this sense, *TRON is best described as a family of operating systems, more like Unix, which also has a published specification to which implementations must conform in order to earn the name.

    That having been said, it's also not really fair to call (GNU/)Linux 'an OS' - it's really a toolkit for building OSes. There is a huge variety of systems that are called Linux but can't run each other's programs without porting effort.

    And the same can be said for Windows - 9x, NT, Me, 2K, XP, CE (and server variants, including 2003) have annoying incompatibilities between them that preclude considering them the same OS.

    --

    [100% ISO 646 Compliant]
    SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.

  15. What is the most popular post on Slashdot? by hankaholic · · Score: 2, Informative

    Timothy writes "If your answer is Unique Stories, you're plain wrong. It's DUPES, a Canadian method of post generation that can be customized for any large-scale media systems. According to a popular geek news site, it is used by more than 300 story submissions each year. The article looks at the competition in this market, notably Michael, known for not even reading submissions before posting to the homepage. This last effort could lead to the eDUPE method, an encryption method that offers secure post submission across wireless networks and the Internet. One thing is sure for this market: the future is definitively open-source. This overview contains more details and external references.

    --
    Somebody get that guy an ambulance!