Slashdot Mirror
Green Hills Software Decides Linux Isn't So Bad
An anonymous reader submits a link to this report on LinuxDevices.com, which begins "An outspoken open source detractor has paid Linux a back-handed compliment. Green Hills Software (GHS), known for diatribes against Linux in military/aerospace applications, is shipping 'Padded Cell technology' intended to enable the company's proprietary real-time OS to take advantage of the wealth of Linux application software." You may remember GHS's Dan O'Dowd, who's claimed that the embedded Linux Tools Market is a myth and that the open source nature of Linux makes it a threat to national security.
This should be self evident to anyone. Admittedly the National Security Agency bothered to make additions to the Linux kernel to make it more secure, and freely returned their work to the open source community. That just shows that the National Security Agency doesn't know anything about National Security.
When I'm concerned about National Security I know I trust a random small commercial software company. It would only make sense that they would be better informed about National Security than some lowly government organisation.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Yes, Suse Linux Enterprise Server 8 has
Portland, North Dakota Puppies
Seriously people, allowing your OS to run apps from another OS isn't declaring the superiority of the other OS. It is simply a wise business decision. It can, in fact, be interpreted as an insult to Linux, depending on how you look at it. Consider this:
GHS: "Our OS can now run Linux apps, so you don't have to use crappy Linux"
This is exactly the same reason they came out with WINE. The WINE devs don't like Windows, so they give you an alternative with WINE. This is the same thing.
If they find a backdoor in the kernal and someone has stolen sensitive stuff through it, who's to blame?
Stuff so sensitive that it threatens national security has been stolen and your only concern is your scapegoat.
You work for the government, don't you?
KFG
I think this course of events is sort of ironic. Possibly they were motivated for other goals in their previous outlook on linux. Either that or they feel its good enough and won't endanger their security for there product at least.
Or maybe they just want access to all the linux apps available. It doesn't necessarily mean a change of heart regarding linux; does anyone here think the WINE guys started WINE because they felt that Windows was a better platform? Or that the FreeBSD crew created linux binary compatibility because they thought linux was superior?
Disclaimer: I work for Green Hills Software
There seems to be some confusion about this product. From what I've seen and heard (I haven't used this product directly yet), it is a method of running linux applications on top of the uber-secure real-time operating system, "Integrity". The linux applcation layer is sheilded from the rest of the system, and possibly from other linux-application layers. It's really more of like user-mode linux than a linux kernel.
I hope that helps...
BSD users, and perhaps we can include Apple OSX users among them, have made valid criticisms of linux for a long time now. None of us have sunk to the depths of declaring linux a threat to national security because it is open source. It is perfectly reasonable to act as Green Hills Software has, in providing a compatibility layer. The irresponsible public statements they have made is another matter.
It's me again (the guy who works at GHS as per the grandparent of this post. I don't have a /. account)
I don't feel that there is a "distain" for the work of the dedicated individuals who have worked on Linux. We offer development tools that can develop on and for Linux (as well as Windows and Solaris). Many (if not most) of our developers use Linux as the "host" operating system for developing INTEGRITY and MULTI (our compiler/debugger/code-editor/etc...). Linux is a fine operating system for desktop work.
The concern is that Linux is not provably secure. With INTEGRITY, we can prove security and stability. We have a version of INTEGRITY that has been certified as DO-178B Level-A compliant, which means that it can run critical systems on airplanes. To achieve this, we had to make the kernel completely deterministic, and test and document every line of code. There is no dynamic memory allocation at the kernel level (no malloc()), there kernel never turns off interrupts, even when in an interrupt handler (granted, a processor usually turns interrupts off when an interrupt fires, but we turn them back ON at the earliest opportunity). You cannot say these things about Linux, and thus it is less fit for safety or security-critical systems.
Lastly, in response to some complaints I have seen previously, Green Hills does offer the source to INTEGRITY to paying customers. There have been complaints that no one could trust INTEGRITY because they don't have the source code to it. These complaints are unfounded. Customers are free to examine the source and modify it to their wishes, and many do.