International Space Station switches from Windows to Linux

[h=2]Windows 8 may drive me to Linux[/h]
I have been a Microsoft defender for decades. “No, MS-DOS 4.0 isn’t really that bad,” I pleaded to friends almost 25 years ago. “Give Windows 98 a chance” I begged ten or 11 years later. Heck, I extolled the virtues of Vista (which I did believe in, by the way) to anyone willing to listen. But in the wake of last week’s introduction of the Consumer Preview edition of Windows 8, I can say only this: Microsoft, you’re on your own.
Never — and I’m going to repeat this for additional emphasis, never – have I been as horrified by one of the company’s products as I am by this one. (Yes, I used Microsoft Bob.) Every choice seems to have been made for a sketchy reason, and the full collection of them bears the haphazard feel of the morning after a particularly raucous college party. Scratch that: Even at my most inebriated, I’m pretty sure I would never conceive of something like Windows 8.

Windows 8 may drive me to Linux | ExtremeTech

Looks like I may be headed that way to.
 

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If the oems ever get their act together, a lot of others will too.

Our friends Wang and Wong really ought to give it decent chance.

Lenovo might do it at some stage, too.
 

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    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
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HAHAHA!

Ya know, it's not that Windows 8 is not FAST for me... And when it is working it's great. But my Media Computer is important to me, it allows me to wind down after a day of battling viruses, misconfigured networks, misconfugired customers, bloat and malware programs, I NEED to engulf myself in whatever fantasy world I can find to my liking when I am done.

So, when my Media System develops even minor hard Drive errors, this begins a whole series of time-consuming Microsoft Automatic Repair and Diagnostic processes which CANNOT be shut off. If I allow Windows to do the tests on it's own it always fails to find the main problems which on that system is read element failure on the system drive.

Even after repairing the drive manually, the Automatic Repair processes must start, sometimes taking up to 45 minutes through 3 reboots. I would not say this is Reliable. Windows 7 had reliable self checks and was easy to repair, there really has been only one Windows 7 32 or 64 bit system I have never been able to fix - And that was my own system, this one, which I upgraded to 8.

The Problem is with 8, a noobie user will get tired of waiting and force a restart, which will cause a hard drive get messed up. The Auto Repair system really needs to strip down and add in a function that can scan the whole surface from outside of the partition, THEN a regular 3-part CHKDSK process can fix the rest of it. It also needs a progress report and a clear indicator when errors occur and what they are, cos the Blank Purple screen don't cut it.

The last time I started having problems in my Media System, it took 4 hours to fix. -Twoof those hours were Windows 8 doing the tests I just performed externally.
 

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Not entirely clear to me what that has to do with NASA switching to Linux.

Unless you mean you wouldn't stake your life on 8.

Or maybe the astronauts are pissed that media centre isn't included. ;)
 

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    PC/Desktop
NASA are not upgrading to windows 8.

“We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.”

Hi there
Now I understand why they had a terrible Ammonia Leakage today which required some pretty heroic outside Space walk activities.

Co-incidence --- who knows --these days when MEGA bucks are involved - Anything is possible. So who's hacking the computer systems.

BBC News - ISS: Space station's cooling system leaking ammonia

Cheers
jimbo
 

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I always thought a leak was the result of a hole in a pipe of some kind.

What has that got to do with using win8/whatever laptops in the station.

They probably need more robust pipes.
 

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I always thought a leak was the result of a hole in a pipe of some kind.

What has that got to do with using win8/whatever laptops in the station.

They probably need more robust pipes.

Hi there
These days even in a lot of suburban homes Computers run things like Smart Meters and can also arrange for a certain amount of "Auto Repair" -- so it's quite conceivable for example that a faulty computer piece of hardware failed to detect a build up of Gas at a critical component - thereby causing a Leak - which would have been totally not monitored by "Humans" until it became "Life Threatening".

Another alternative -- wear and tear or even Metal fatigue in the pipes wasn't being monitored correctly by the computer - also leading to the incident I've mentioned. This could be caused by faulty OS (Windows or whatever) / Faulty application programming or even failure by Humans to monitor the computers findings regularly -- who knows. What is certain is that if we rely on Computers to control environments more and more we'd all better make sure EXACTLY what we expect the Computers to do and what the Humans have to do.

I can't argue a lot with some of the more experienced I.T guys on these forums - but after a Life time in Engineering I'm willing to answer most people's questions on these types of problems -- so "Game On".

Luckily due to the cool headedness of people on board the ISS it appears the problem was contained without any loss of life.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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LOL.

Posted from ubuntu13.04 Space Ship Unity

Just switched to cinnamon

Screenshot.jpg
 

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Talking about Windows Media Centre, I'm not sure what's happened, but it seems to be more erratic and failure prone than ever before, especially when I want to use it to watch broadcast TV. So recently I switched to the free version of this: Download ProgDVB and haven't looked back. It starts up first time, every time and has far more features than WMC and doesn't just stop working whenever it wants, like WMC was prone to do.
 

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My Computer

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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Pretty easy, I just installed cinnamon desktop on ubuntu unity.

Log into to whichever UI you feel like.
 

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Wow.... this is in my opinion is very BAD press for MS and Windows 8.


Folks DO notice things like this, even less than savvy consumers.

I wonder if NASA discussed their concerns with the Windows OS? Hard to believe that MS wouldn't have done everything possible to keep that contract. Grim stuff. Bad times at MS.
 

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This really has nothing to do with MS and Windows 8. They were running Windows XP [read - old outdated laptop/OS] and were stupid enough to allow an Russian cosmonaut to bring an infected USB on board. Heck, most corporations freak out if you stick an virus infected USB drive into a corporate machine. Back when I was a program director at a college and system admin, I disabled the USB drives because I was tired of people bringing in their infected files.
 

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    Pair of 750 GB
This really has nothing to do with MS and Windows 8. They were running Windows XP [read - old outdated laptop/OS] and were stupid enough to allow an Russian cosmonaut to bring an infected USB on board. Heck, most corporations freak out if you stick an virus infected USB drive into a corporate machine. Back when I was a program director at a college and system admin, I disabled the USB drives because I was tired of people bringing in their infected files.

That is a good point. We had 18 computer club systems infected from member's USB sticks. Now we scan them automatically and highly restricted the use of sticks.

But with Linux you don't have that problem. A windows virus cannot do any harm. I do most of my internet work now on my Mint Mate or Zorin virtual machines. It's faster and safer.
 

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This really has nothing to do with MS and Windows 8. They were running Windows XP [read - old outdated laptop/OS] and were stupid enough to allow an Russian cosmonaut to bring an infected USB on board

I have no idea what that story you posted is - but there is no indication it has anything to do with NASA decision.


They used the word stable and reliable - not the word secure.

They were replacing the XP machines and chose not to upgrade to win8.
 

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    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
I'm literally quite surprised the ISS wasn't running Linux to begin with. For a space station, you'd think technological geek nerds would be running the place with Linux.

But oddly enough, in a similar article it cited that the ISS didn't want to patch systems that wasn't based on THEIR decision. So basically, they don't want to use a 12 year old operating system that FINALLY is getting cut off from support by Microsoft. And it's xp, seriously, what? We can build an international space station but can't keep its PCs running the latest software and support?
 

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  • OS
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    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
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    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
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