January 14th, 2005
Embedded Windows systems architect revisiting platform choice
Meet Miles Wade. From now on, when I hear about those serious mission
critical systems that are used in those heartland industries that drive
the economy, I will be thinking about Mr. Wade. Wade
designs hardened systems for the oil exploration industry — systems
that must survive the rigors of a drilling platform in the middle of
the Gulf of Mexico equally as well as they must survive the sub-zero
temperatures of foribidding climates where other oil reserves exist,
without remote intervention. For the most part, these systems
are unreachable through the Internet and the personnel in the field who
rely on the systems for their personal safety are not savvy enough to
fix the systems if something goes wrong. These are systems that can’t
go down.
So far, the systems Wade designs are based on the embedded version of Windows XP, otherwise known as XPe. The
applications that the systems run keep close watch on what’s going on
"in the hole" are are all based on Windows. But even though some
expense would be involved in rewriting those applications, as Wade
tells me in ZDNet’s fourth podcast interview why he’s being driven to alternatives (download the MP3 or subscribe to the feed with an RSS aggregator that supports enclosures).
Strangely, neither security nor licensing costs, two areas of weakness
for Windows’ when compared to Linux, rank high in Wade’s decision
making. Not only does he see some advantages in embedded Linux over
XPe, he also feels as though he’s on his own when it comes to
supporting XPe — a state of of affairs that wouldn’t change if he
moved to Linux.
Overall, Wade’s preference is to stay with XPe. But as he tells David, Microsoft isn’t making it easy and he has a message for Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
