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Could I Run a TV Station on Linux?
JesusQuintana asks: "I'm working with a low-power television station to update their playback system. Currently they're using tape and I've been tasked to move them to computerized playback (MPEG-2, etc.) There are proprietary solutions (very expensive) and there are companies that bundle software with Windows and standard x86 hardware. Overall, they are generally unimpressive and won't sell the software without bundling it with their own hardware. (They won't let us buy our own storage.) We have the expertise to build our own infrastructure (NAS, redundancy, etc.), but really just need the equivalent of iTunes for high quality video. There are lots of other pieces needed to complete the work-flow (such as encoding the media), which could be accomplished on Mac or Windows or even Linux. But what about playback? We need something that will play back these files at their scheduled times (perhaps scheduling cron jobs to change playlists) to broadcast quality hardware (SDI or YUV video). Could we run a TV station on Linux?"
How could you??
Linux is not stable enough. Multithreading on Linux is a joke and the file system (EXT-3 and Raiser) fails all the time. Linux is stable only in environments with almost no workload, like on a box running in someone's closet. That would not be the case in a TV station.
Of course some may say that they've been running Linux without reboot for years, but that's lies. If only because there are critical kernel updates about every two weeks. You could broadcast the console recompiling the kernel instead of porn at 1am.
Oh..yeah... Linux the Ultimate!! 6 strings and 3 config files and you can accomplish ANYTHIG?? Is that so my friend..? can it play high-end games..? I dont think so.. Games are a major integrated part of pc's today and the ultimate Linux hasnt yet been able to do it.. sad.. sad...