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Operating Systems => Linux and UNIX => Topic started by: Calum on 30 May 2002, 16:13

Title: QNX?
Post by: Calum on 30 May 2002, 16:13
so what is QNX? i was labouring under the impression that it was an operating system but after a flick through the many pages avalable on qnx.com i am not so sure, also, is it free? is it a company? is it open source? is it specific to a particular type of activity?

What is this beast called QNX and is it worth my while poking around in it if i want to have a multifaceted understanding of Unix?
Title: QNX?
Post by: cloudstrife on 31 May 2002, 04:47
from the qnx website:

Tiny yet powerful, the QNX Neutrino
Title: QNX?
Post by: cloudstrife on 31 May 2002, 04:48
kernel = base operating system
Title: QNX?
Post by: alied_perez on 31 May 2002, 04:54
quote:
Originally posted by Calum:
so what is QNX? i was labouring under the impression that it was an operating system but after a flick through the many pages avalable on qnx.com i am not so sure, also, is it free? is it a company? is it open source? is it specific to a particular type of activity?

What is this beast called QNX and is it worth my while poking around in it if i want to have a multifaceted understanding of Unix?


I've been at qnx.com, and it seems to be a microkernel well-designed OS(at least this is what they say).'In the "Tanenbaum-Torvalds LINUX is obsolete" debate (back in 1992) someone mentions it as a real-world-working-microkernel-OS. This is where I first heard about it. Then I followed the link in this site to get the site. The OS is free for noncomercial uses and there is a demo floppy to download and try it. I've seen the floppy and, though very limited, it's a working OS and (if you have a supported NIC, not my case) even surf the Web and download some add-ins. As soon as I finish to download the installation(if the Internet access wouldn't kill me first) and find a box where to install it I'll tell you what's up.

Till then...
Title: QNX?
Post by: Heru on 31 May 2002, 05:00
I'm pretty sure that QNX is supposed to be used as an embedded OS.  It is not very popular and seems to be failing miserably.  You can download a demo version of it on 1 floppy disk to fiddle with, though.
Title: QNX?
Post by: jtpenrod on 31 May 2002, 21:41
QNX is most definitely an op-sys. Even though it's aimed more at embedded applications, it works well as a desktop OS, with a rather nice and easy to navigate desktop. Like Linux, it's POSIX compliant. And it is just about one of the easiest and fastest installs I've ever seen. Nor does it take up much HD real estate. Definitely one to look into.
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Title: QNX?
Post by: Calum on 31 May 2002, 15:54
hmmm, i am not really in the market for a one floppy bersion, although i will probably get it anyway, i would like to get the noncommercial version of QNX, did any of you see that it is available from their website? i will look today actually, so no worries.

Re: microkernel OSs, not sure. Obviously there's benefits, but look at HURD compared with Linux... I do reckon that unless a macrokernel is *very* well written and, more importantly, designed, that it will easily become an unportable bloated monster, but i also reckon that the extra overhead involved in having the kernel do as little as possible creates a lot of unnecessary problems.

To an extent though, i am not really entitled to an opinion, since i know nothing of the actual implementation of a kernel, and can only think about it in the abstract.

And by the way, would anybody actually recommand getting QNX, to make my unix knowledge more well rounded?
Title: QNX?
Post by: Master of Reality on 1 June 2002, 07:50
I might look into this, as i might need a very small OS to fit on my windows machine.

(i deleted your empty post jtpenrod)