Re: Andriod - coming on strong!

On 1/27/2011 1:12 PM, KDT wrote:
On Jan 27, 10:07 am, Flint<age...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm more interested in how RIM's tablet will fair and how well it will
be supported by programmers. One thing for sure is the SDK for it's
QNX underpinnings is quite good, and the QNX microkernel is probably
one of the most mature/robust kernels available of all of them.


Uhh, the SDK for native apps will only be available for a select few
developer. Everyone else will have to use basically a glorified web
sdk.

The SDK for 'native apps' exists _outside_ of the underlying OS as the BlackBerry Tablet OS is a derivative of QNX's Neutrino OS which itself is a >microkernel< based _real time OS_, so _all_ apps exist outside of kernel-space and for the most part, outside of the OS(as extensions of it, and tend to mean something different than apps on a macrokernel based OS (Android, WP7). CPU/Memory resource management, message/pointer passing, interprocess communications are already well developed and quite robust on QNX's Neutrino RTOS, and have been since it's inception in the late 90's(and even as far back as QNX 4, a prior x86 version of QNX RTOS back in the 80's).

The QNX Neutrino SDK has already been available for a while (since QNX released their Photon MicroGUI on top of Neutrino). RIM is adopting a single OS strategy that will have the same QNX OS running on both their phone and tablet, with the new Blackberry Tablet OS being essentially the same OS running on their phone but with an enhanced touchUI. Essentially, Blackberry Table OS/Phone OS are going to be a reworked version of their Photon MicroGUI with an enhanced TouchUI and beefed Java support (which was a sore spot with developers for a long time). But RIM's takeover/ownership of QNX has them rapidly beefing it up so as to be able to port the Blackberry app portfolio to their tablet very rapidly. The Neutrino OS code is locked back down (QNX had briefly opened their code before RIM bought them), but this doesn't mean native apps SDKs are limited to a select few developers. The OS SDK will be, but what constitutes 'native app' is essentially a different programming model - essentially the difference is largely due to the classic difference between micro/macrokernel based OS's.

All this aside, I have a personal interest in QNX, as it is/always has been an OS which was a 'spiritual cousin' to the older AmigaOS structure which is extremely similar in many ways. At one point back when Gateway was still a US based company (Then called "Gateway 2000"), and had the Amiga technology 'red-headed stepchild' fall into it's lap after the sequential bankruptcies of Commodore and Escom, The Amiga's OS was going to be rewritten as a PowerPC version of QNX Neutrino(until Ted Gates deep-6'd the deal). In fact, a PowerPC version of QNX Neutrino was undertaken (and done) largely *because* of/for the orphaned Amiga, for which on work was originally done.

It's cool to see QNX finally get a shot to be closer to mainstream use beyond its previous (largely) embedded system use.

--
-MFB
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Andriod - coming on strong!
    ... So what other SDK are they going to use *right now* with full access ... If BBTOS will allow "untrusted" developers to write kernel extensions, ... You have been posting about the QNX SDK from the beginning of this ... being forced to write glorified web apps. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Andriod - coming on strong!
    ... So what other SDK are they going to use *right now* with full access ... I've never argued that this isn't a limiting factor in BBTOS, but you haven't provided any useful insight as to how this is a devastating limitation, or how this is more important than initial prioritization of a fully usable web experience, and tools aimed towards that end first. ... It would be a pointless and wasted effort on someone who hasn't even read the architectural overview of the QNX, or fails to understand it's benefits, or even the fundamental difference between a microkernel based OS and a monolithic OS, and is practiced at feigning ignorance and putting words into others' mouth. ... Agreed, but there is a point in the QNX OS environment, an 'untrusted app' doesn't always equate with _all_ 3rd party apps, and user processes can appear as OS services and vice versa. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)