Re: Nvidia and its choice to read the GPL "differently"

Mark Mielke
2003-01-12T05:59:36Z

On Sat, Jan 11, 2003 at 08:19:32PM -0800, David Schwartz wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Jan 2003 22:33:25 -0500, Mark Mielke wrote:
> > Why do I doubt the calibre of vxWorks? People I trust who work on
> > RT systems have told me that in many cases, products with RT
> > requirements can perform better on Linux, than on vxWorks. (Better
> > meaning managing a higher capacity without significant side
> > effects)
> This is an atrocious way to compare a real-time operating system to
> a non-real-time operating system. One would expect that real-time's
> benefits also come at a cost, otherwise all operating systems would
> be real-time operating systems.

Atrocious how? My qualification "without significant side effects"
means just that - *without* *significant* *side* *effects*. Note that
I did not say web clients, but that below you assume web clients. I
don't know about you, but I don't consider a web server to be an RT
application.

> Perhaps Linux can handle more web clients than vxWorks, but can
> Linux guarantee that if the temperature in the core coolant exceeds
> 350 degrees, the secondary pump circuit will be activated within 13
> milliseconds?

If you truly wanted to fit the requirements you list above (350
degress, secondary pump activated in < 13 milliseconds), I suggest you
use a hardware solution.

I remain very optimistic that Linux+RT will be able to handle more
capacity than vxWorks for the majority of RT applications.

> A cheap hammer can drive in more nails than a top of the line
> screwdriver.

Any brand name hammer that is aggressively marketted, costs more to
produce per hammer, than its competitors that may produce just as
good of a hammer, without all the marketting costs.

But... this has gone too far off a dead thread. You obviously like
vxWorks. Quite a few people I socialize with curse vxWorks. That's
your freedom and their freedom. I don't want to be part of this
anymore. :-) (Private query: What does webmaster.com use vxWorks for?)

mark

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