Real-time Linux puts jet engine to test, Feb 10, 2004

The trend to adopt real-time versions of embedded Linux got a boost last week, when aircraft engine builder Pratt & Whitney revealed that it used a Linux-based software kernel to test its new F135 engine, which will power the U.S. military's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

Following an announcement of the engine's first test run to full afterburner power last Monday (Feb. 2), Pratt & Whitney engineers said Linux, long considered ill-suited to real-time applications, played a key role in highly deterministic, real-time tests. They said that a Linux-based product known as RTLinuxPro served in the development and testing of software for the engine's full-authority digital electronic control, as well as handling "facility control" of test stands at the company's West Palm Beach, Fla., engine plant.

A division of the German finance ministry has moved its back office operations to mainframe computers that run Linux, in the latest victory for the upstart operating system in Europe, IBM said on Tuesday.

International Business Machines Corp. said that the finance ministry department, which is responsible for paying public sector employees and for managing certain taxes, installed two large IBM mainframe computers that run both IBM's operating system and Linux.

More than 1.1 million developers in North America are spending at least some of their time on open source projects, a study released Monday showed.

In addition, the new study by market researcher Evans Data Corp. found that well more than a half million developers are spending a portion of their time on 64-bit architectures, and a quarter million are active on grid-computing projects.

Microsoft is poised to offer a lower-priced, scaled-down version of its Windows XP and Office XP software to compete more effectively in Thailand -- and similar developing markets -- against the threat of open-source software.

The Redmond, Washington-based company is hoping that by lowering its prices and thereby releasing more legitimate software into markets like Thailand -- where rampant piracy often hides the benefits of legal software -- the company will be able to fend off the popularity of Linux

The NHS is to begin trials of a desktop Linux software suite in a move it says could free up money for the frontline health service and save taxpayer millions of pounds.

The health service will evaluate Sun Microsystems' Java Desktop System package, which includes the SUSE Linux operating system, a browser, StarOffice and Ximian email.

2.6.3-rc2 has been released today.
See changelog for full details.

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