Penguins in spa-a-a-ce! ISS dumps Windows for Linux on laptops

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ponder

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/10/iss_linux_debian_deployment/

Penguins in spa-a-a-ce! ISS dumps Windows for Linux on laptops

'We needed an operating system that was stable and reliable'

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco
Posted in Science, 10th May 2013 21:29 GMT

The crew of the International Space Station (once they've fixed their leak) will trade their old Windows XP laptops for Debian-powered systems to use in their Operations Local Area Network (Ops LAN).

The six-person ISS has over 140 laptops on board, around 80 of which are working at any one time, along with a variety of internal networks for operations, crew support, and telemetry. These are used to manage on-board systems and handle some of the 50GB of data the ISS puts out and receives every week.

United Space Alliance (USA), the Earth-based contractor who maintains Ops LAN, has been using Windows XP laptops for the Ops LAN setup. However, with that operating system going into retirement – and prone to frequent crashes – laptops and network integration team leader Keith Chuvala decided it was time for a change.

"We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable – one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust or adapt, we could," he said.

USA picked Debian 6 as an operating system (Google's not the only one impressed with that OS), and organized a training system with the Linux Foundation to get it into place. Training didn't take more than a single session before the team was ready to set up the system, and Chuvala said the ease of deployment sold him on the scheme.

"Things really clicked after we came to understand how Linux views the world, the interconnectedness of how one thing affects another," he said. "You need that worldview. I have quite a bit of Linux experience, but to see others who were really getting it, that was exciting."

The use of Debian is going to warm the heart of NASA's non-human ISS crewmate, the R2 Robonaut, since it – he? – runs on Linux. The legless robot (not in the Bender sense) has been on the station since 2010 as a testbed for a future space-faring robot who can free astronauts from making lengthy trips outside the station.

While software isn't the main cause of failure for the station's laptops (broken screens cause more problems) there are other disadvantages to using Windows. In 2008 the W32.Gammima.AG virus was brought out of the gravity well and infected a series of computers before being eliminated.

Tablets are also in used on the ISS, but they are not as useful as here on Earth since, according to NASA, the accelerometers don't work in zero G. In testing on the agency's zero G "Vomit Comet", Apple's iPad failed to deliver, but astronauts still bring them up.

Astronauts on the ISS have had internet access since January 2010, and NASA has had the technology in place for astronauts to make phone calls since 2001 – one of the few things Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick got right in the book and film of the same name. ®
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80 Laptops on at the same time, on a space station, damnation!
 
froot said:
I was also WTF'ing about the 80 laptops.... I can't possibly imagine how that works efficiently.
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Who said anything about using them for the ISS? Might be someone like the Pirate Bay that setup shop up there :D
 
ponder said:
Who said anything about using them for the ISS? Might be someone like the Pirate Bay that setup shop up there :D
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:D

I can understand replacing a desktop with a laptop in an attempt to save space/power, but my question was pointing towards having 80 of them.... or maybe it's just much harder taking 5 steps in the ISS.
 
hal_9000_revisited_1_36472_8100_image_12577.png


Wonder if the astronauts will be allowed back in after their scheduled spacewalk http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...-for-spacewalk-to-repair-serious-ammonia-leak
 
froot said:
I can understand replacing a desktop with a laptop in an attempt to save space/power, but my question was pointing towards having 80 of them.... or maybe it's just much harder taking 5 steps in the ISS.
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Each has its own particular use. The data for some of these programs can take up gigabytes and gigabytes of space, so it's a little unfeasible to switch them all to 1TB-plus drives and wittle down the size.

Also, it is hard taking a 15.6" notebook with you in the ISS. Some squeezing is required in a few spots and because the environments can be replicated its easier and cheaper to have several of them.

Damn, 140 laptops and an umetered, 1:1 contention satellite connection. I wonder how many Bitcoins that could yield?
 
From Computer Weekly:

In space, no one can hear you scream at the Windows 8 Metro screen.
 
You do know that this decision has nothing to do with what OS is best and everything to do with the fact that XP support is ending.

Add to that the fact that the laptops and other computers in the space station is kind of too old for Windows 7 or 8, it only leaves one way to go.

Source for above claim: someone working for NASA. NASA is very much a Microsoft house and only switch when they really have no other option.
 
AlphaJohn said:
You do know that this decision has nothing to do with what OS is best and everything to do with the fact that XP support is ending.
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If you bothered to read the article, you'd see that it's not NASA that has been using Windows XP but the contractor who wrote the software. The contractor has decided to move to Linux because they have more control over the OS (what goes in it, resources it uses/possible patches etc) and highlighted as well that it's a much better way to go, especially considering how vulnerable Windows is when it comes to viruses (especially since the astronauts have access to the internet now)

Linux > Windows
 
MyWorld said:
One of the definitions of a hacker:


Yeaaaa, want to try that one again?
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I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here, it's exactly what I was implying.

Here, let me make it easier for you:

Especially if you think punching in cmd prompts make you look smarter.

?
 
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