Novell to Launch Quick-Response Linux

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a C|Net article about Novell's upcoming real-time Suse Linux Enterprise product. From the article: "Real-time operating systems can respond to external events within a guaranteed time frame, a feature that mainstream business computing doesn't generally require but that's necessary for some areas, such as aircraft radar. But in a move that indicates the flexibility of Linux, Novell plans to begin selling the real-time variant of the open-source operating system next month."

Comments

from the that's-awful-fast dept.

[Anonymous Coward]

from the that's-awful-fast dept.

It could take me a week to respond. As long as I respond within that week and a week is all that's needed, I'm realtime.

Realtime is not about speed, it's about fixed time intervals.

Re:from the that's-awful-fast dept.

[Lisandro]

It's actually not a matter of speed. A realtime OS guarantees that a given external event will trigger a response in no more than x milliseconds. This might be slower (or faster) than a non-realtime OS, but it's not the point. There are a lot of applications where things must be attended within a given timeframe (radars, as mentioned, industrial automation, nuclear plant safety devices, etc.). Achieving this this is not a trivial excersice.

This is not about the response time after you click on your Office document - and in fact, the (huge) added complexity of a RTOS is nor needed nor desired in most desktop and even enterprise uses.