Having migrated a large project from a custom OS to Linux, a few comments on how they compare for use in such applications.
A custom OS does have the advantage of a certain degree of "determinism", based on having complete control over the system. For self contained, real time systems this can be usefull.
Linux ( or FreeBSD, etc. ) gives the developer access to a tremendous amount of software. Consider somthing as trivial as adding a new device. With a custom OS, every device driver must be hand coded, maybe fun but not very productive. The same goes for applications such as e-mail, SMTP, firewall functions, etc.
As far as reliability, this is kind of a toss up. In theory, the custom OS should be more reliable because its not constantly being "enhanced" to add new capabilities that might not be needed. But in practice, it's so difficult to get a sufficient quantity of good software engineers that custom OS's are often more buggy than they should be. Changing hardware can be a nightmare issue for reliability in custom boxes.
With time-to-market the huge factor that it is, I suspect custom OS solutions will become quite rare. Of course, a good real-time, embedded Linux would be sweet.
The system does not use a hacked kernel, as a standard Linux works just fine. The telephony hardware resides in a seperate chasis from the computers, interfaced via UDP/IP over Ethernet, thus no hardware drivers are needed.
The GPL issue may quite likely be valid in the future as we consider incorporating pieces of software such as that from www.openh323.org, an open VoIP stack (actually under the Mozilla license). Any such source modifications will most certainly be made available.
As far as the web page, that's by a marketing department which wouldn't no what GPL is (-.
There are two obvious points the judge could have used to rule in our favor.
The secret is out. No further harm will be done by these websites.
The suit is unlikely to be won by the plaintiff.
If the judge ruled on the first issue, this is just a minor victory. But if he ruled on the basis of the second point, that would be very good news. Do we know the basis for the judges ruling?
The researchers remove a gene, the poor guy dies, and they conclude the gene is necesary for life?
This is bad logic. If you remove the genes that make a humans brain function, the person dies (or worse, becomes a M$ programmer). All they have shown is that these genes are necesary in this particular configuration, not in all life.
It is interseting though that in such a simple DNA structure, 100 genes remain to be identified. Life is quite complex.
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A custom OS does have the advantage of a certain degree of "determinism", based on having complete control over the system. For self contained, real time systems this can be usefull.
Linux ( or FreeBSD, etc. ) gives the developer access to a tremendous amount of software. Consider somthing as trivial as adding a new device. With a custom OS, every device driver must be hand coded, maybe fun but not very productive. The same goes for applications such as e-mail, SMTP, firewall functions, etc.
As far as reliability, this is kind of a toss up. In theory, the custom OS should be more reliable because its not constantly being "enhanced" to add new capabilities that might not be needed. But in practice, it's so difficult to get a sufficient quantity of good software engineers that custom OS's are often more buggy than they should be. Changing hardware can be a nightmare issue for reliability in custom boxes.
With time-to-market the huge factor that it is, I suspect custom OS solutions will become quite rare. Of course, a good real-time, embedded Linux would be sweet.
The GPL issue may quite likely be valid in the future as we consider incorporating pieces of software such as that from www.openh323.org, an open VoIP stack (actually under the Mozilla license). Any such source modifications will most certainly be made available.
As far as the web page, that's by a marketing department which wouldn't no what GPL is (-.
- The secret is out. No further harm will be done by these websites.
- The suit is unlikely to be won by the plaintiff.
If the judge ruled on the first issue, this is just a minor victory. But if he ruled on the basis of the second point, that would be very good news. Do we know the basis for the judges ruling?This is bad logic. If you remove the genes that make a humans brain function, the person dies (or worse, becomes a M$ programmer). All they have shown is that these genes are necesary in this particular configuration, not in all life.
It is interseting though that in such a simple DNA structure, 100 genes remain to be identified. Life is quite complex.