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International Space Station Prepares For Linux Migration

Linux Foundation Training Prepares the International Space Station for Linux Migration:

It's hard to get tech support 400 kilometers away from the Earth, which is why Keith Chuvala of United Space Alliance, a NASA contractor deeply involved in Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) operations, decided to migrate to Linux. As leader of the Laptops and Network Integration Teams, Chuvala oversees the developers in charge of writing and integrating software for the Station's "OpsLAN" - a network of laptops that provide the ISS crew with vital capabilities for day-to-day operations, from telling the astronauts where they are, to inventory control of the equipment used, to interfacing with the cameras that capture photos and videos.

"We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable - one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust or adapt, we could."

"At the ISS, our constellation of users maxes out at six, all with very specific requirements and duties." To manage all of the astronaut's needs Chuvala was looking for newer, more robust enterprise support, which was achieved by moving from a Scientific Linux distribution to Debian 6.

Along with the ongoing laptop support, a new challenge for Chuvala's team is headed to the ISS - Robonaut (R2). Designed to take over some of the astronaut's responsibilities, R2 will be the first humanoid robot in space. Running on Linux, the robot can be manipulated by onboard astronauts with ground controllers commanding it into position and performing operations.

Not surprisingly, coming from someone whose customers are in outer space, Chuvala believes that one of the greatest lessons learned during training came when Duval presented Linux from a global perspective. "Things really clicked after we came to understand how Linux views the world, the interconnectedness of how one thing affects another. You need that worldview. I have quite a bit of Linux experience, but to see others who were really getting it, that was exciting."


wmcbrine
join:2002-12-30
Laurel, MD

wmcbrine

Member

I'm kind of surprised to hear that Windows was ever used on the ISS.

Usually when I see screen shots from NASA, they have that Motif look.
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO to FF4m3

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They will not get the latest and greatest Windows 8 ?
I think they're going to miss their WOW experience
mich64
join:2008-08-30

mich64 to FF4m3

Member

to FF4m3
US Navy famously ran NT 4.0 on their warships and somebody is surprised to see Windows on the ISS?

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to OZO

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to OZO
said by OZO:

They will not get the latest and greatest Windows 8 ?
I think they're going to miss their WOW experience

Now wouldn't that be kool. A shot from inside the space station, showing an astronaut playing world of warcraft up in space. lol.

*The WOW in your post triggered the World of warcraft idea.

kingdome74
Let's Go Orange
Premium Member
join:2002-03-27
Syracuse, NY

kingdome74 to FF4m3

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to FF4m3
Mint?
GraysonPeddi
Grayson Peddie
join:2010-06-28
Tallahassee, FL
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter PoE
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC

GraysonPeddi to Snakeoil

Member

to Snakeoil
Nothing to do with World of Warcraft. Ever came across a slogan for Windows Vista? "The WOW Starts Now."

Microsoft did came up with a website or webpage dedicated to Windows Vista probably back before 2007 to drum up the hype of Windows Vista. Aero Glass with a much nicer taskbar that gives off a bit of transparency.

Of course, haters will always hate Vista, but who cares? *sigh*

Don't get me started on talking about Windows 8. I'd really love Windows 7 and even Windows Vista that when upgrading to Windows 8, Microsoft took away Aero Glass and I'd have to add back the start menu with Start8 or any third party programs.

And no, Modern (why does Microsoft call Metro "Modern?") does not fit with my personality at all. And sure, I can have as much number of applications in the task bar all over the place, but that gets me to the point that I'm going to have a sad feeling about Windows 8, like if a desktop is about to go away. Microsoft can lie to me that the desktop will never go away, but I can see where Microsoft is going in a direction: make the desktop less useful and say goodbye to the desktop. And don't ever try to correct me.

Now, with that said, can a topic about Windows 8 stay in Microsoft's forum where they belong? I apologize for my bluntness but I'm getting very tired of all the Windows 8 fanboyism defending Windows 8 like "Windows 8 ROXS!!11!!! YOU CAN NEVER CRITICIZE UNTIL YOU TRY WINDOWS 8!!!1111." (Yeah, that's a lot of exclamation marks and one's but I do want to get my point across.) Am I a Windows fanboy? No. Am I a Mac OS X fanboy? No. And am I a Linux fanboy? No, I am not. I am an open source advocate, but I'm okay with using proprietary software as long as I can get my work done.

But I'm choosing my path to go with Linux and I use what works for me. Am I happy to see NASA moving over to Linux? Yes! But if NASA wants to stay with Windows, I'd be fine with that and that is all what's matters that an OS of their choice will work for them. Lastly, please pardon me for such a long post; I hope I don't bore anyone.

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

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It seems like there have been a lot of high profile moves to Linux in the last year or so.
I was talking to me brother the other day, who works at a Windows shop, and he was talking about how some of the machines had some version of Windows that only allowed around 6G of the 250G+ of RAM in the machine, unless the paid more money. I was blown away. Who would ever put up with that kind of crap? They just take the hardware you buy and throttle it down just to extort you out of money?

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to GraysonPeddi

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to GraysonPeddi
I never had an issue with Vista, I used it on homer built PCs.
The only issue I recall is Nvidia being a little slow in driver releases at first.

My cuirrent PC has win 8 on it. It's ok, I don't see why people "hate" or are loving it. To me it's ok.

I rather liked ubunutu though, compared to win8. But then again, I'm the type of person that doesn't care about brand names, all I care abut is can I do what I need to do with said "thing".
Which gets me in trouble in certain circles. For example certain Apple people claim that an Apple computer isn't the same as any other computer.
To me it is. Both have ram, A cpu, a GPU, an OS. So why isn't an Apple the same thing as any other personal computers [PC]?

Ahh well.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to Maxo

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to Maxo
said by Maxo:

It seems like there have been a lot of high profile moves to Linux in the last year or so.
I was talking to me brother the other day, who works at a Windows shop, and he was talking about how some of the machines had some version of Windows that only allowed around 6G of the 250G+ of RAM in the machine, unless the paid more money. I was blown away. Who would ever put up with that kind of crap? They just take the hardware you buy and throttle it down just to extort you out of money?

That is exactly what MS does, I discovered that the hard way when I pushed my system to 32GB of ram to better support my CG modeling needs.

I had windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. Now I did not think I had to google first as I have put memory in a system and I knew my MB supported the 32 and I knew a 64bit OS did as well... Boy was I surprised when the My Computer screen showed Memory: 32gb (16GB Available).

Yep had to get professional edition to use all the memory, Naturally I first tried to find a reg hack that would allow it but there was none at all.

once the gaming industry fully supports Linux its asta la vista Windows.

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

Ian1 to mich64

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to mich64
said by mich64:

US Navy famously ran NT 4.0 on their warships and somebody is surprised to see Windows on the ISS?

And was roundly criticized for doing so when a Guided Missile Cruiser was dead in the water for 45 minutes when someone accidentally put a zero into a database application.

»gcn.com/Articles/1998/07 ··· x?Page=4

“Refining that is an ongoing process,” Redman said. “Unix is a better system for control of equipment and machinery, whereas NT is a better system for the transfer of information and data. NT has never been fully refined and there are times when we have had shutdowns that resulted from NT.”

"“Because of politics, some things are being forced on us that without political pressure we might not do, like Windows NT,” Redman said. “If it were up to me I probably would not have used Windows NT in this particular application. If we used Unix, we would have a system that has less of a tendency to go down.”"

rolfp
no-shill zone
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join:2011-03-27
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Pretty good for a "fringe" OS!

clarknova
join:2010-02-23
Grande Prairie, AB

clarknova to GraysonPeddi

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to GraysonPeddi
said by GraysonPeddi:

Of course, haters will always hate Vista, but who cares? *sigh*

No hate here, I'm just holding out for Mojave.
clarknova

1 recommendation

clarknova to Kearnstd

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to Kearnstd
said by Kearnstd:

That is exactly what MS does

Not just MS. This is standard practise for IBM, Cisco, Sonicwall...I'm sure the list goes on. It's a silly practise that underlines how broken IP laws and consumer protections are, and all the more reason why software freedom is so important in the face of our growing nothing-for-sale,-everything-for-rent economy.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

1 recommendation

Kearnstd

Premium Member

at times I think there should be laws against artificial limits in products when the limit is just a soft lockout to sell a higher end version.

Funny thing is nobody really complains.

Yet if an automaker for whatever reason sold V6 cars that were just the V8 model with the ECU shutting off the plugs and injectors for two of the cylinders people would be calling their AG or even their senator.

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

Maxo

Premium Member

said by Kearnstd:

at times I think there should be laws against artificial limits in products when the limit is just a soft lockout to sell a higher end version.

What's worse, if you break their soft locks then you are committing a crime. So in your car example, imagine you removing the plastic piece limiting your car to get the V8 performance and being charged for a crime.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave to Ian1

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Of course, Unix is not Linux.
dave

dave to Kearnstd

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to Kearnstd
said by Kearnstd:

at times I think there should be laws against artificial limits in products when the limit is just a soft lockout to sell a higher end version.

Here's the thing: what is software actually worth to a purchaser?

The answer must be related to either how much more profit you make by using the software than you make by not using the software; or to how much you reduce costs by using the software.

From that point of view, it doesn't seem unreasonable to charge on the basis of "percentage of benefit accruing". Charging on a per-user basis is one way to do that, but it only works for cases where the users are 'countable' in some way. Server farms are trickier, so the approach has been to charge based on the scale of the underlying hardware.

I don't see it as unfair to charge a higher price to a guy that's buying the product to support a billion-transactions-per-second than a guy that's buying it to support a dozen-transactions-per-fortnight.

(Try looking at it as 'offering a lower price if you agree to using less capability' - but of course no-one ever thinks of it like that).

If nothing else, assuming the software is 'supported', you're going to incur higher support costs with larger installations. Big systems tend to have more complicated use-cases.

This argument probably cuts no ice with those of you who think that software should cost $0 in the first place.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

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to Kearnstd
said by Kearnstd:

at times I think there should be laws against artificial limits in products when the limit is just a soft lockout to sell a higher end version.

Funny thing is nobody really complains.

Can you buy those laws? Corporations can and they do it using bribery lobby. That's why we have what we have now . But I agree with your premise though.

FiReSTaRT
Premium Member
join:2010-02-26
Canada

1 recommendation

FiReSTaRT

Premium Member

said by OZO:

Can you buy those laws? Corporations can and they do it using bribery lobby "golfing". That's why we have what we have now . But I agree with your premise though.

Updated to a more contemporary and politically correct term