PDA

View Full Version : Should Airbus have used Linux?



Darkscot
July 25th, 2005, 05:53 PM
I made a long haul flight last week with Lufthansa on a very nice Airbus A340. When I tried to use the inflight entertainment system (Connexions by Boeing running on Windows CE) it hung up. I reported it to the flight attendant and he had to re-boot it twice before it would work properly. He appologised for the inconvenience but shrugged his shoulders and said "...its a Microsoft system!".

PS The same thing happened on th return flight but this time it only had to be re-booted once.

grim42
July 25th, 2005, 05:58 PM
I made a long haul flight last week with Lufthansa on a very nice Airbus A340. When I tried to use the inflight entertainment system (Connexions by Boeing running on Windows CE) it hung up. I reported it to the flight attendant and he had to re-boot it twice before it would work properly. He appologised for the inconvenience but shrugged his shoulders and said "...its a Microsoft system!".

PS The same thing happened on th return flight but this time it only had to be re-booted once.
You know the big LED/LCD flight information screens that display flight times, etc. in airports?

I was picking up a friend the other day at the airport and suddenly the image changed to a Windows screen with "This program has performed an illegal operation...".

phen
July 25th, 2005, 06:06 PM
hello!

my father is flying airbus, and he is very angry about the entertainment system. i heard that in the beginning an engineer was on every plane, to help fix the software problems. The entertainment system is considered critical, not because of safety, but because it is very important for customer satisfaction...

cheers,

kai

Kvark
July 25th, 2005, 06:13 PM
Lol, it is scary when airplanes and airports use unstable computer systems, who knows what else they use windows for... This brings window's tendancy to chrash to a whole new level.

BWF89
July 25th, 2005, 06:24 PM
But most people don't mind when these things happen because:

1. They think Windows is the only OS you can run on a PC.

2. They think that since Windows is the dominent OS that it's better than all the others.

3. Microsoft is probably the biggest tech company in the world so they figure that "If Microsoft can't fix the problem than it's probably unfixable".

poofyhairguy
July 25th, 2005, 07:06 PM
But most people don't mind when these things happen because:

1. They think Windows is the only OS you can run on a PC.

2. They think that since Windows is the dominent OS that it's better than all the others.


Umm...most people don't know what an OS is....

Windows=computer for them.

sonny
July 25th, 2005, 07:35 PM
Umm...most people don't know what an OS is....

Windows=computer for them.
I agree with you, and MS is making sure it stays that way, and even worst making more people not to think about their OS or what acctually a computer does, or what MS is doing.
Once I told a friend about everything MS is doing; with the patents, the lawsuits and all, and he just said: "It's sad and bad, but there's nothing we can do about it"
My obvious answer was: "We can do something about it, we can use Linux"

Ubunted
July 25th, 2005, 07:42 PM
I was at a small airport in Mexico a few months back, and every status screen in the building was POSTing over and over. There were no drives, so they just kept rebooting. Reeeeeeal professional.

angkor
July 25th, 2005, 07:50 PM
Most of you probably already know this one, for those of you who don't have a laugh:

http://www.webaugur.com/bibliotheca/field_stock/os-airlines.html

:)

poofyhairguy
July 25th, 2005, 07:56 PM
Most of you probably already know this one, for those of you who don't have a laugh:

http://www.webaugur.com/bibliotheca/field_stock/os-airlines.html

:)

Lol, this one is so true:



Linux Airlines
Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"

benplaut
July 25th, 2005, 10:09 PM
Lol, this one is so true:

and they also secretly fly in and out of the "closed" Win XP airports, without them knowing :grin:

Kvark
July 25th, 2005, 10:25 PM
rofl! Those OS airlines comparisons are sooo true!

majikstreet
July 25th, 2005, 10:38 PM
rofl! Those OS airlines comparisons are sooo true!
Ditto.

BWF89
July 25th, 2005, 10:55 PM
Most of you probably already know this one, for those of you who don't have a laugh:

http://www.webaugur.com/bibliotheca/field_stock/os-airlines.html

:)
Nice. But what about Amiga?

phen
July 26th, 2005, 12:15 AM
don't be afraid :-) all flight-critical systems on an airplane aren't running windows. they do run a special os for airborne computers on special hardware. don't know more about it to be true. would be nice to hear something about it :-)

primeirocrime
July 26th, 2005, 12:22 AM
it's good to know that the critical systems in a airplane don't run windows...but....

isn't most of the things in airplanes these days cable free, like everything is wireless??? and with windows onboard...tsc tsc
they would be better off with something like playstation 2

benplaut
July 26th, 2005, 02:45 AM
it's good to know that the critical systems in a airplane don't run windows...but....

isn't most of the things in airplanes these days cable free, like everything is wireless??? and with windows onboard...tsc tsc
they would be better off with something like playstation 2

no... watch a plane take off someday, you'll notice a com cable trailing of behind it to the control tower :wink:

KrisDwyer
July 26th, 2005, 03:03 AM
don't be afraid :-) all flight-critical systems on an airplane aren't running windows. they do run a special os for airborne computers on special hardware. don't know more about it to be true. would be nice to hear something about it :-)
but what you must realise is, that windows is infectious like bill gates, the entertainment system will have a trigger to take over the system and send the plane on a flight path which makes no sense at all (.NET!)

Kvark
July 26th, 2005, 03:08 AM
no... watch a plane take off someday, you'll notice a com cable trailing of behind it to the control tower :wink:

Or watch a plane fly by at march height, you will see the two white cables from the control tower and power outlet trailing behind it in the sky.

KrisDwyer
July 26th, 2005, 04:00 AM
Or watch a plane fly by at march height, you will see the two white cables from the control tower and power outlet trailing behind it in the sky.
And you'll be writing a letter in the plane when no sooner have you written the comma, a paperclip appears and predictably asks, "Do you want to write a letter?"

BWF89
July 26th, 2005, 04:09 AM
And you'll be writing a letter in the plane when no sooner have you written the comma, a paperclip appears and predictably asks, "Do you want to write a letter?"
I had to deal with those when I was useing MS Word on our schools 10 year old computer typing lab running the origional Macintosh OS. Very annoying.

Darkscot
July 26th, 2005, 12:20 PM
You know the big LED/LCD flight information screens that display flight times, etc. in airports?

I was picking up a friend the other day at the airport and suddenly the image changed to a Windows screen with "This program has performed an illegal operation...".

If you search on Google Images for "airport blue screen" you will several examples of this.

KrisDwyer
July 28th, 2005, 02:19 AM
I wonder what OS the pilot uses...
The mobile windows version... lol :P

Spoofhound
July 29th, 2005, 08:23 PM
The mobile windows version... lol :P

If so I hope he's got the right drivers for his joystick ;-)

About a year ago I got the opportunity to "land" an Airbus 340 in a pilot training simulator. The system uses a joystick for directional changes, but strangely enough the joystick is located on the left side of the pilots seat, so right handed pilots are actually flying the plane with their "wrong" hand. Ever tried playing a joystick video game with your "wrong" hand?? When I asked the instructor about this he just shrugged and said "they get used to it"

Omnios
July 29th, 2005, 08:53 PM
If so I hope he's got the right drivers for his joystick ;-)

About a year ago I got the opportunity to "land" an Airbus 340 in a pilot training simulator. The system uses a joystick for directional changes, but strangely enough the joystick is located on the left side of the pilots seat, so right handed pilots are actually flying the plane with their "wrong" hand. Ever tried playing a joystick video game with your "wrong" hand?? When I asked the instructor about this he just shrugged and said "they get used to it"

Well at least they are coffee cup certified.

Spoofhound
July 29th, 2005, 10:11 PM
All this airplane stuff is way over my head...

yeah, this thread is rapidly becoming a flight of fancy...

jeremy
July 30th, 2005, 07:57 AM
Yes, this thread has really taken off.