Re: Windows
I understand that in some cases it makes sense to use a tried and tested off-the-shelf OS like Windows. It may not be perfect but its flaws are often well-known so you can work around it.
What does puzzle me, though, is the use of Windows for systems like this, or those ad displays, public information displays, video terminals etc. They usually have a very narrow set of requirements (some network activity, some display functions, some times limited mouse or keyboard input) that could easily run on a much more pared down OS without all the unnecessary baggage that a consumer desktop OS like Windows has.
If you develop the application in a high level stack (Java? Python?) and run it on a severely pared down Linux or BSD flavour that only has the minimum required functionality compiled for this task you'd likely be much more reliable. You could probably even do a major hardware or OS upgrade without the higher level application noticing it.
Anyone able to shed some light on this?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
