QNX 6.3 Released

Lufi2 writes "QNX 6.3 was released on 3 Jun. New features include accelerated 3D, the Voyager 2 browser which supports HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1 now, SCTP (stream control transmission protocol) and packet filtering with NAT! GCC 3.3.1 is also included. If it's not a typo, the Professional version costs $8695/user o_O Usual QNX NC (non-commercial = free beer) LiveCD is not available on the download area yet (As of 9 Jun)... But it sounds very promising"

Comments

You don't have the slightest idea...

[ReKleSS]

QNX is older than linux. It's a microkernel. It's realtime. Linux is neither. There was a very appropriate quote from somewhere - "Linux is what you trust your server to. QNX is what you trust your nuclear reactor to." They each have their place. -ReK

Re:You don't have the slightest idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

"QNX is what you trust your nuclear reactor to." Which would be rather stupid. From the license:

B3.2 High Risk. Unless QSS has provided its express written consent for each Runtime Component in the Runtime Configuration, the Software may not be, and OEM will ensure that it is not, used in any application in which the failure of the Software could lead to death, personal injury or severe physical or property damage (collectively, "High-Risk Applications"), including but not limited to the operation of nuclear facilities, mass transit systems, aircraft navigation or aircraft communication systems, air traffic control, weapon systems and direct life support machines. QSS expressly disclaims any express or implied warranty or condition of fitness for High-Risk Applications.

Re:You don't have the slightest idea...

[turgid]

Nuclear sites, in the UK, do not rely on manufacturers warranties or pledges to maintain nuclear safety. Rather, they have in place their own systems of design, resting, certification and legal regulation. You can bet they use products whose manufacturers disclaim liability. What manufacturer wouldn't? However, in the UK, the government underwrites nuclear liabilities. In other words, it takes on the responsibility itself. It does not leave it to others i.e. to chance.

For example, a friend of mine once worked at a UK nuclear power station wher all the machines in the control room ran Solaris on SPARC hardware. It has a similar license clause to QNX. At my old powerstation we used all kids of stuff, from QNX to DOS, Windows 3.11, NT4, Solaris on SPARC, VMS on Microvax... you name it. Once again, it was horses for courses, and the liability was all underwritten by HM Government.

Re:You don't have the slightest idea...

[Samrobb]

QNX is older than linux. It's a microkernel. It's realtime. Linux is neither.

Stock Linux is neither. I personally know of at least one company that offers a hard real-time version of Linux.

ObDisclaimer: yes, I work for TimeSys.

Re:Erm...

[turgid]

That said... what the heck do they run nuclear reactors on, anyway?

Well, in the UK they all have analogue multiply-redundant and diverse saftey ciruits that resond in miliseconds or less.

For routine temperature monitoring and data display they use everything from archaic 1970s minicomputers to RISC workstations and even the dreaded Windows NT.

Many of our reactors are designed such that they can be run safely (albeit in steady sate i.e. constant temperature and power output) on a few passive analogue guages.

Licensing Cost

[nuxx]

Just FYI, that licensing cost is most likely a developer per-seat cost with some redistribution allowed.

As far as per-user stuff, it's likely that most people use QNX in one form or another every day without knowing it. From cable boxes to ATMs, traffic lights, etc.

QNX is put in places where failure cannot happen. At all.

Re:QNX is the bad touch

[AKAImBatman]

Most normal stuff you expect to find on a linux install is either broken in some way or missing entirely. It doesn't even have bash!!

Why are you trying to use QNX as a desktop UNIX workstation?

Re:QNX is the bad touch

[ArmpitMan]

Man, you're a troll. QNX2 came on 5.25" floppies in 1987. Here are some examples of some other things that happened in 1987:

• IBM introduced the fantastic new "VGA" graphics standard, blowing everyone away with its 256 colours of fury.
• Windows 2.0 came out.

Surely you'll concede that QNX 2 is superior to Windows 2?

Re:QNX is the bad touch

[AKAImBatman]

We needed a real time OS (or at least close to it) so thats why its running on QNX. The QNX box is communicating with embedded microcontrollers over an external bus.
[snip]
My preference would have been an old Sparc box running SunOS.


The words, "non-realtime OS" keep coming to mind...

They deviate from standards and make you have to dig to find where that deviation is. Is having man pages too much to ask??

Fair enough. But it *is* an embedded system. Footprint is everything. My guess is that you're simply not used to the QNX way of doing things and are thus frustrated. Many of the QNX deviations are actually quite sensible, and some of them are actually choices made by the person customizing the system.

Do yourself a favor. Learn to use offline docs (or at least installable docs) and stop expecting dumb things like BASH on an embedded system. If you don't stop complaining, your boss may decide to give you VxWorks (note the oxymoron here) as a punishment.

NC Download Changes

[variable]

With 6.3.0 the download version of QNX will actually be our full commerical product, with downloads avaliable for both Windows, Solaris, Linux and Neutrino. After 30 days, these PE (pro edition) versions will turn into what was once the NC edition with the pro features disabled.

I suspect the downloads will be up and ready very soon. You can find more details here:

http://www.qnxzone.com/

Re:QNX is the bad touch

[variable]

QNX 2.x? There was no GNU toolchain for QNX 2.x, so I strongly doubt you are using it.

QNX isn't Linux, our default /bin/sh is ksh not bash, although you can just fire up qnxinstall and go to the QNX Online repository and install bash. All my x86 workstation machines have bash installed with no trouble at all.

It would have been more informative if you had actually said what was broken with g++ rather then saying it was just broken. The only thing that is different from our 2.95.3 g++ vs. say Linux or BSD is that we have exceptions turned OFF by default instead of turned on. So you have to give the command line option for them to be enabled - "-fexceptions" I belive.

Real Time

[niker]

QNX is put in places where failure cannot happen. At all.

Not quite! QNX is a Soft Real Time Operating System - situations that need to fulfill "hard deadlines", for instance a medical monitoring device, will use a Hard Real Time Operating System.

Clicky - QNX is Soft Real Time

Clicky - Different Real Time concepts

Re:I don't get the attraction

[variable]

QNX isn't a Linux clone. QNX is a POSIX based OS that has a history that goes back a decade before Linux was even a glimmer in Linus's eye.

There is nothing given away for "free" either, there is an evaluation that is free - much the same as vmware has a 30 day eval of their product. After that 30 days, Neutrino will fall back into a more limited mode but will remain operational (like it was with NC before 6.3.0).

www.qnx.com

www.qnxzone.com

www.openqnx.com

Some reading to bring you up to speed on things.

Um, what?

[gotr00t]

Well, it seems that justification of claims is obviously something that nobody takes into consideration on this thread.

Not to be overzealous, but if Linux is such a horribly done clone of UNIX, then why is it the most widespread and most used *NIX-esque operating system around, even more than BSD? No, seriously, please tell me.