From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Daniel James Subject: Re: preempt rt in commercial use Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:07:22 +0100 Message-ID: <4C91EC5A.7070105@64studio.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Raz , linux-rt-users To: jordan Return-path: Received: from rom012.server4you.de ([62.75.222.127]:37458 "EHLO rom012.server4you.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750983Ab0IPKHl (ORCPT ); Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:07:41 -0400 In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-rt-users-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Hi Jordan, > Next, in the Pro-audio sector, you have Muse Research who make the > "Recepter". Which is a hardware VST host. That's just one example of many in the pro audio sector (that we know about, since the companies involved aren't required to disclose their use of GNU/Linux - it's a competitive advantage, so they have a disincentive to do so). Several flagship audio mixing and recording systems use the Linux kernel, including the Harrison Xrange: http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=51 and the Midas XL8: http://www.midasconsoles.com/xl8.php If you have been to see a Hollywood movie, or attended a stadium gig on a rock band's world tour, you have almost certainly been listening to audio mixed on a Harrison or Midas console - these companies are at the top of their game. RT-Linux provides significant advantage for these companies over proprietary RTOS products because of time-to-market, not licence costs: there are many audio software components available for re-use, leaving the integrator to write the last parts of the code. There's also knowledge transfer from the Linux HPC sector - for example, the Xrange uses up to 120 Opteron CPUs, so it's hardly a 'desktop' system. You don't get that combination of high performance and reliable, re-usable source code with any other platform, RT or otherwise. Licence fees for proprietary software aren't the big deal for companies selling a relatively small number of expensive products. I think people get confused with consumer products like mobile phones, where it's supposedly all about volume. Actually, I think the independence of OEM's from proprietary software vendors has more to do with it. Microsoft has significant lock-in with consumers, and yet it still can't persuade people to buy Windows phones :-) Cheers! Daniel