12-18-2019, 04:22 AM
(12-18-2019, 02:08 AM)jeffster Wrote:(12-17-2019, 09:48 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Yes, many if not most embedded systems run windows, ATMs are the funny ones, many of which were running a variant of XP up until a few years ago--it's one of the main reason support for XP was extended the last few times. Shocking I know.
MEH! I say, MEH! I figured it was a variant of Windows. I am just surprised that this system is used at all. Not reliable. Too easily hacked. One of the issues with Windows is that drivers use DLL (dynamic linked libraries) whereas Unix uses binaries. DLL can become corrupted, and updates sometimes break them. Binaries don't suffer from the same issue, and Unix doesn't used shared files the same way as Windows. I also believe Unix binaries the drivers before user screen, while Windows is still doing it's loading of drivers even when user screen appears.
Either way, poor choice using Windows. We had this issue at a bank I worked at, and it was an old version of Windows, and Revenue Canada suffered from the same problems (Windows).
Almost all doctors and dentists revert to Apple for most applications. Just more reliable and not as hackable.
DLLs are a form of binaries. The Linux equivalent is shared object files, same tech different name, also widely used and subject to all the same issues as DLLs. Windows also isn't fundamentally easier to hack in am embedded context. Questions of loading screens are all fully customizable in an embedded system.
I don't want to be an ass here, but to be blunt that post was a mix of misused technical terms and incorrect understandings, and not at all correct.
My job is Linux embedded systems development. There's plenty of reasons I prefer to work with Linux over Windows for systems not dissimilar from the fare payment terminals. But my personal preferences aside, both Linux and Windows embedded are totally capable platforms for applications such as our fare system. Windows is not the reason it has problems.