On Mon, 15 Apr 2024 08:06:12 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
Linux runs on billions of embedded systems, many of them being a 32
bit architecture and bound to stay there. Embedded systems tend to
have an order of magnitude more in lifetime.
And most of those systems will never have their OSes updated. Most
vendors of embedded systems seem to develop their products with a
“ship and forget” mentality.
In comp.os.linux.misc Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Mon, 15 Apr 2024 11:34:28 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Many pieces of industrial gear still run on DOS
Would you entrust mission-critical business functions to obsolete,
unsupported software?
TNP might not, but that does not change the fact that TNP's statement
is all too true. There is much industrial gear that runs on DOS (or
other, now extinct, OS'es).
A recent (related) example that made the rounds a week or two ago:
SFMTA's train system running on floppy disks; city fears 'catastrophic failure' before upgrade
https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-train-system-has-been-running-on-floppy-disks-but-city-fears-catastrophic-failure-before-upgrade/14624828/
Still relying on floppy disks 26 years later.
One thing about this topic that has been popping up in several
outlets... as El Reg points out in [1]:
«The agency noted that its system was installed in 1998, when
floppies were still in common use and, er, "computers didn't have
hard drives." *That doesn't exactly match reality*,»
(emphasis mine) What happened, somebody mixed the years or tried to make
up an explanation and came up with a bad one? Or am I missing context?
IIRC hard drives were commonplace in 1998, even if not so large.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/09/san_francisco_muni_floppy_disks/
On 2024-04-16 12:48, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> writes:
One thing about this topic that has been popping up in severaltechnology back into an era where hard drives were at least much less
outlets... as El Reg points out in [1]:
«The agency noted that its system was installed in 1998, when
floppies were still in common use and, er, "computers didn't have
hard drives." *That doesn't exactly match reality*,»
(emphasis mine) What happened, somebody mixed the years or tried to make >>> up an explanation and came up with a bad one? Or am I missing context?
IIRC hard drives were commonplace in 1998, even if not so large.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/09/san_francisco_muni_floppy_disks/ >> The disks are 5.25” disks and that does put the origins of the
common - but certainly very long in the tooth by the time the system was
deployed.
Er... no. 5.25 floppies coexisted with hard drives.
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> writes:
One thing about this topic that has been popping up in several
outlets... as El Reg points out in [1]:
«The agency noted that its system was installed in 1998, when
floppies were still in common use and, er, "computers didn't have
hard drives." *That doesn't exactly match reality*,»
(emphasis mine) What happened, somebody mixed the years or tried to make
up an explanation and came up with a bad one? Or am I missing context?
IIRC hard drives were commonplace in 1998, even if not so large.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/09/san_francisco_muni_floppy_disks/
The disks are 5.25” disks and that does put the origins of the
technology back into an era where hard drives were at least much less
common - but certainly very long in the tooth by the time the system was deployed.
Other parts of the ATCS also date back to the 1970s, the disks aren’t
even the oldest component.
References:
https://www.sfmta.com/projects/train-control-upgrade-project and https://sfstandard.com/2023/02/02/sfs-market-street-subway-runs-on-reagan-era-floppy-disks/
https://www.railwayage.com/news/muni-atcs-replacement-under-way/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SelTrac
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