On 7/9/2009 11:15:40 AM, Bruce Bostwick (lihan161...@sbcglobal.net) wrote: >"At the risk of being flamed, I might also point out that NASA has long >since forbidden any primary functionality on ISS from running on >Windows platforms because of stability concerns -- if it's onboard and >actually has to do with life support, maneuvering, or station >operations, it's running on Linux. They only allow Windows for non- >mission personal use and, in some cases, non-mission-critical >experiment support. That says a lot, to me."
I have to respond to this. I've worked at Mission Control at Johnson and have been in every single room in the building. Not kidding an iota. What you say here is basically true, but misleading. There are Windows machines all over NASA and they are being used for your typical business applications. Nasa is extremely vested in UNIX because they are running "Science" applications on computers that predate the PC. (As you might guess there is some kludge around some of the older units) The ground floor of MSC is pretty much a giant room with hundreds of mainframes and those are the computers that are actually "mission critical". The Linux machines are mostly special purpose machines designed to perform specific tasks and Linux is used because for "nix interoperability and hardly any of this equipment approaches what you would call "general purpose". It is quite similar to the 'nix cores being used in building management systems, used because it is easy to strip down to the needed essentials with no extra frills involved. It is these stripped down cores that actually do all the work for NASA because the simpler the design the greater it's reliability. xponent Lives One Mile From NASA-JSC Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
