Re: WinXP
- From: Paul Keinanen <keinanen@xxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:14:24 +0300
On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 11:51:39 -0500, "MikeWhy"
<boat042-nospam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Paul Gotch" <paulg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:n1e*rHCjs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MikeWhy <boat042-nospam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What a generally ignorant thing to say. These are examples of bad drivers
in the first instance, bad application code in the second instance, and
preemptive coverup of likely leaky RAD systems in the third instance.
None
of these are problems of the OS. Are you claiming that Linux is somehow
immune to development errors?
My personal experience comes from Windows 2003 Servers as batch build
boxes
on HP hardware using HP recommended versions of drivers with no thirdparty
drivers or system level software installed.
We have found that we have to preemptively reboot them once a week
otherwise
the incidence of "weird things" happening increases to levels which impact
on our build success rates. On the other hand most of our Linux boxes have
been up for hundreds of days without problems.
Any embedded system need the ability to monitor itself and restart.
Generally
you need hardware and software watchdogs, defensive coding and the ability
for the system to do something sensible in the case of catastrophic error.
Regrettably I see far more Windows based embedded system which have "bad
drivers" "bad application code" and "leaky RAD systems" than embedded
systems based on other OSes.
For example most theatrical lighting desks are embedded computers. People
don't like them to fail mid show, audiences tend to get upset. Strand,
which
was the market leader for many used a protected mode environment using DOS
as a bootloader. Other companies tend to use things like VxWorks or QNX,
or
how brewed RTOSes. There is approximately one XP Embedded based desk in
the
market and very few people trust it as too many people have had it crash
or
weirdly freeze etc.
In the search for truth, the simpler answer usually prevails. I would
suspect application error and inadequate testing more readily than I would
accept excuses that the platform is fundamentally flawed. I've seen the
reverse situation as well. My Linux-based Toshiba DVD player reboots
occasionally during playback. Should I conclude that this reflects a
limitation of embedded Linux?
I do not know about Vista, but any other member of the Windows NT
family can run for months or even a year or two without a reboot,
provided that you are careful what hardware and software you are
using.
A very large application package has been used on various platforms
(including Windows NT family) for more than a decade. On WinNT the
applications run in several console windows, the keyboard, mouse and
display are used only for maintenance and diagnostics and usually a
KVM switch is used to maintain multiple systems. Any loadable storage
devices (floppy/USB) are disabled and the system is running
stand-alone or with very strict firewall protection to the next well
protected area. The applications do not in general use malloc/free so
there are no dynamic memory fragmentation issues. New software and
hardware are typically tested for months before being released.
So it is definitively possible to run WinNT systems without reboot for
a very long time if you can accept such limitations.
Paul
.
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