What operating system is used on the space station?

[kailashseo368]

Lots of systems use and run on Windows in industry. It's just that, for many applications, it's overkill and overly complicated. That's why most "computers" like ATMs and the like run on very basic Linux-esque operating systems that are purpose-driven.

As for what operating system a space station uses, I doubt there's just one running the entire thing.

[Justloadit]

I am sure it is Window-less

[irneb]

Also don't believe they have only one. Usually redundancy is foremost with those guys. Especially after certain "incidents" in the past few decades Obviously the OS isn't all that could go wrong. It's just the base system which allows other software to run. It's used so that all the software needed can be made to work together and/or concurrently without needing to know everything about each other and the hardware on which it's installed. The OS is more like the points-man directing traffic than the road on which the software runs. So while the OS has a great influence over robustness, it's not the only thing which could go wrong. And as has been stated, this particular problem seems to have stemmed from a hardware issue.

As for "Unix" being the ancestor of all OS's. That's partly true for "most" current OS's. The thing to remember is there's not just one Unix (at least not since the 70's). Each company making their own flavour of Unix, even Microsoft had a go when they fiddled with Xennix. Though the Microsoft OS's (since DOS, through Win9x) have mostly been derived from CP/M originally, not a Unix by a long shot. The WinNT-esque (i.e. 2000/XP/Vista/7/8) was actually derived from IMB's OS/2, which was also not a Unix - though it implemented much the same ideas as Unix already had.

But nearly everything else is using some form of Unix or Unix-like OS. Chances are that every reasonably complex electronic device you own has a unix-like operating system in it. The Unix family is rather "huge", spanning from large banking servers from someone such as Oracle, down to the Linux in your DVD player or the OS in your phone. Even Apple's OSX/iOS is based on BSD (a derivative of Unix). Linux is not strictly an offshoot of Unix, it was designed seperately, though I cannot see that the creator (Linus Torvalds) didn't at least use Unix as a measuring aim.

So these days, of the major consumer OS's left - the only true Unix-child would be Apple's OXS/iOS. Since it can trace its roots back through BSD. But both Linux and Windows have a slight break in that they didn't take a Unix and built onto it, but rather re-invented the same ideas. Of course that doesn't mean unix is only alive on Macs. Nearly all routers or NAS boxes use BSD or similar, the rest use Linux. And as stated before large scale servers tend to be Unix, web servers seem to be Linux mostly. Minor servers (like domain / file servers) seem to be split between Linux / Windows.

But what users tend to "see" is not the OS itself, but the Desktop Environment. E.g. Linux has a whole splattering of Desktop Environments (Gnome / KDE / XFCE / Unity / etc.) - which are mostly also available to the Unixes out there. OSX adds its own environment onto BSD (which is the major difference between OSX & BSD, though not the only one). Windows tends to have only the one, though updated a bit through the years.

[adrianh]

That's why most "computers" like ATMs and the like run on very basic Linux-esque operating systems that are purpose-driven.

Maybe in your country, I've seen a couple of Windows - "Blue Screen" ATMs in South Africa

[Mitos]

One of the largest purchasers of our rack mounted systems are in aviation ; http://www.aeroinst.com/ServiceDepar...ATEEngineering
They use them to extract flight information from their aircraft via RS422/RS232 for flight analysis, pilot skills evaluation & correction or further fine tuning. It is similar to but not the Black Box however. The entire apparatus is operated by a series of pre-programmed eprom chips. I suspect similar in any high speed aircraft.

[chris_kzn]

Definitely some form of UNIX, the flavour which included C and not C-sharp or C++.

[adrianh]

...and the winner is Linux

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...r-Windows.html

[popayetwo]

They don't use one OS but up to 16 for various functions - most OS's are classified to prevent viruses.
E.G. the system for mapping the earth is totally different to the system used for environment control.
Astronauts use laptops and upgrade the onboard systems regularly,
Systems are from the USA,Russia, England etc.
Hope this helps

[irneb]

...and the winner is Linux

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...r-Windows.html

Same story: http://www.itechpost.com/articles/90...-gnu-linux.htm

One thing I can see from the "virus problem": Since MS is discontinuing support for XP, there's probably not going to be many updates in the future. And most newer MS operating systems require newer hardware, while most Linuxes can run on 10+ year old hardware just fine. On the space station upgrading hardware is exorbitantly expensive (think of the cost per payload for taking stuff to space).

As an aside, I also think Linux isn't the full answer. They only mention "key functions", i.e. probably only some PC's are migrated.

[mansuri123]

As Much i know they are using Linux over Windows for better reliability.