Messages in this thread | | | From | Robert Kaiser <> | Subject | Re: patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] | Date | Wed, 29 May 2002 13:25:01 +0200 |
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>> isn't really up to it. Right now we are building cathedrals in the same >> way as a medaeival master mason, by intutition, experience, and testing. >> We have no more idea than they do if any given edifice will come >> crashing down (as several large medaeival ones indeed did).
Now, that's a really nice comparison!
> Well, inability to prove cathedral stability did not stop those people > from building them, and inability to prove stability of Linx does not > stop people from using it, too.
As for really safety critical stuff, it definitely does. I know from personal experience what it takes to certify software for use in aircrafts. Believe me, there is no chance that Linux as we know it could ever pass a DO-178B certification process. And for software in aircraft, that is a requirement. (Mind you, any form of Windoze doesn't stand a chance either). Similar regulations apply to other fields (such as medical devices) and it would scare me if that wasn't so. Just do a web search for "Therac-25" if you are interested in a (sad) story about what can happen if software in a medical device goes wrong.
> (I've seen machine for monitoring patients > build from "not to use in life-support" chips and running linux.)
As long as the machine only *monitors*, that may be possible. If the machine were to e.g. administer medication, that would be a totally different story.
Rob
---------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Kaiser email: rkaiser@sysgo.de SYSGO RTS GmbH Am Pfaffenstein 14 phone: (49) 6136 9948-762 D-55270 Klein-Winternheim / Germany fax: (49) 6136 9948-10 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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