Aside from Linux running on NASA hardware, phones and consoles. Does it run on ATM machines, PDAs and point of sale monitors?
I ask this because I’ve seen Windows being used in airport terminals and really old versions being used for cash machines as well. The crowdstrike problem made this more prevalent by seeing “non end user computers” using the OS.
Does Linux fill this niche as well do you know? I don’t recall hearing any big name embedded distro used for those sorts of machines. Maybe Alpine Linux or NetBSD?
Thank you in advance for your input!
The Deutsche Bahn uses Linux for the displays in their trains, that show you the next stops, at least. Saw the systemd startup thingy on one of those displays once when the train restarted while I was in it.
I saw the self checkout machines in my supermarket being restarted a few times and caught a glimpse of what was shown on the screen. Before they were upgrade some time ago they showed that CentOS was running and now I think that I saw Rocky Linux running on there. So yes, these are definitely out there and used widely.
Also I’ve see pictures of Raspberry Pis being used almost everywhere.
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Linux is much more commonly used in embedded systems than Windows for obvious reasons.
A ton of digital signage (think fast food restaurant menus) run Linux as well.
Most home routers do as well.
Wouldn’t a home router with Windows cost way more because of the licence?
Probably would also need like ten times the amount of ram and disk space. These things usually run on 64/128Mb of RAM and anywhere from 8 to 32Mb of flash.
More, but not way more - they would be licensing window IoT, not a full blown OS, and they wouldn’t be paying OTC retail rates for it.
Don’t most routers run some form of BSD?
Never heard of a commercial home router running a BSD derivative, but I’m sure it’s possible. Almost all of them have a GPL li censée disclosure so…
Linux on phones and tablets is a thing. Typing from my Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro running postmarketOS and LibreWolf.
My company has a robot scrubber that runs a custom Linux distribution.
Is that a machine that scrubs robots or a robot that scrubs?
It’s a floor scrubbing robot. It uses LIDAR, a 3D depth camera, and a couple 2D side cameras to map and navigate its routes. It was cool for about six months and now we just default to manual driving because it’s slow and gets stuck very often.
Not sure if that’s the kind of device you are asking about but kobo e-readers run Linux. It’s allowed me to sideload my books over SFTP instead of always having to plug in a USB cable
Pretty sure ATM runs on super old stuff like OS/2 or Windows XP or Windows CE ?
I’ve got two Orange pi zero 3’s (one acting as my “home lab” and the other one as my… lab rat.) which aren’t ATM machines or PDA’s, but… they are more like “very confused potatoes who think they are pcs” and everything “just werks” as intended.
There’s a jack-in-the-box here that runs linux on their drive-through screen. I only know because it’s had a “vmlinuz not found” error for a few weeks now xD
I came across a bowling arcade game that ran Linux. Still kind of wishing I’d bought it.
I worked in retail until 2016, and a few years before I left they switched all the PoS registers to Linux.
There’s not a distro because the companies that sell those pieces of equipment have their own software packages that sit on top of some distribution that they sell as a whole doohicky they call an appliance.
The distributions that are most often used are those with either direct support from a company the appliance manufacturer can work with or some distro that’s feature compatible with one of those kinds.
Most digital signage I see is a Chromebox running a specific kiosk software.
android on occasion as well
