Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

RIM Unveils New OS Based On QNX

Posted by Soulskill on from the reinventing-the-reinvented-wheel dept.

New submitter HommeDeJava writes "Research In Motion unveiled a new operating system for its tablet and smartphones at the company's BlackBerry developer conference in San Francisco. Called BlackBerry BBX, the new OS combines features of the existing BlackBerry OS and its recently acquired real-time QNX OS. Could BBX attract software developers and spur interest from consumers?"

5 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. If you like ASM sure by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1, Informative

    The entire OS is written in assembly along with the applications. So if thats your thing then go for it.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:If you like ASM sure by MrHanky · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sounds incredibly unlikely, considering it's ported to ARM, MIPS, PPC, i386, etc.

  2. QNX is not another unix implementation by perpenso · · Score: 5, Informative

    I last booted QNX something like 10 years ago...back then it was realtime, unix based (I think?), and relatively promising. I remember it was even more responsive than Linux (which was was more responsive than Windows) ... Anyone have experience programming for QNX? If it's "just another unix" shouldn't porting to it be straightforward?

    QNX is a real-time operating system. For programmer convenience some things are unix-like. However unlike Linux and other unix implementations QNX is a *hard* real-time OS, you are guaranteed that things will happen within certain timeframes. QNX is targeting embedded environments, in particular environments that require incredible reliability - for example military and aerospace. QNX is exactly the sort of thing you use when you are building a mars rover.

  3. Re:Comeback Kid by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apple had a game plan back in 1997 when they got NeXT and with it, Steve Jobs. At first Steve Jobs was only supposed to be there consulting on how to integrate NeXT into Apple. What he saw was that Apple lacked more than an upgraded OS; they lacked focus and execution. Jobs convinced the board that to oust the current CEO. Now mind you, it took 4 years for Apple to incorporate NeXT technology into OS X but the overall plan was started under the former CEO Gil Amelio. I don't believe that Amelio, however, could have done it. He was better at cost cutting than long term vision.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  4. Re:oh QNX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's not Unix. QNX was an RTOS (an industrial one at that) before RIM got their grubby hands on it. POSIX, yes- but certainly not Unix.

    The one thing QNX was really good at- being stable, secure, and real time- RIM has totally decimated. Have you ever seen a Playbook boot? I'll give you a hint- QNX used to boot in 1/20th of the time on a Pentium 3/500mhz back in the day.

    RIM's ARM port of QNX is about the most fucked up thing I've ever encountered. It's a shame, too- because QNX and the development IDE (Neutrino) used to be really cool (which is shocking, considering how messed up the Playbook SDK is). Photon was a great window manager/graphical user environment, but RIM even threw that away and bolted on their own piece of crap.

    I'm not an Android fan at all. But I would take Android over QNX anyday. They messed it up *that* badly.

    -AC