Aside from Linux running on NASA hardware, phones and consoles. Does it run on ATM machines, PDAs and point of sale monitors?
I ask this because I’ve seen Windows being used in airport terminals and really old versions being used for cash machines as well. The crowdstrike problem made this more prevalent by seeing “non end user computers” using the OS.
Does Linux fill this niche as well do you know? I don’t recall hearing any big name embedded distro used for those sorts of machines. Maybe Alpine Linux or NetBSD?
Thank you in advance for your input!
I recently saw Domino’s Pizza uses this touch device to take customer order that uses some very old version of Ubuntu (with unity DE)
At first, I was trying to think of some alternate explanation like they’d just bothered to install Unity on a newer version (which I instantly had to self-reject that notion as bonkers). My guess is that that’s the version the stack was developed for and initially rolled out at guinea pig restaurants before a wider introduction (I don’t know when these were introduced, as I rarely do Dominoes.).
Not really much of a problem with it, as if it’s 16.04, it’s still getting extended updates to 2028 and will probably have a paid extra two years offered that Dominoes is willing to pay. If it’s 14.04, then it’s already on paid extended support until 2024.
Not that I’d touch straight Ubuntu with a 39 and a half-foot pole anytime soon, though some derivatives manage to make good out of it, the best being in my opinion PopOS.
Maybe Domino’s headquarters in our country decided it was cheaper to keep using they linux port instead of paying for windows license. I make this assumption because this particular outlet was openedafter the covid lockdown. Though, I have no idea of their rationale behind using Ubuntu.
It hasn’t been long since I completely switched to linux. I have been using Ubuntu for 1 year. Just switched to fedora (after some distro hopping). Honestly, just so glad to be free from snaps and those awful modifications that they make. Maybe fedora has its own flaws, but for now, I love it.
For some reason, my brain forgot that Domino’s is a multinational chain. 🤦♂️ Still, I would say for POS systems Linux is better because the developer can have much more control than a Windows machine. Still, I see Costco using some POS machines that run Windows 10.
On another note, from what I’ve tried of Fedora, I liked what I saw. I mostly use Debian for several reasons: my first exposure to Linux was Ubuntu VMs and Raspberry Pis, Debian (as Ubuntu’s upstream) follows conventions I’m accustomed to (mostly apt, but also just how Debian groups packages in general), and has great community support (though its wiki kind of sucks, so I often check Arch wiki). I use Trixie (Testing) on my desktop to get newer software, but on my laptop, I run stable and just use Flatpak for anything that has seen significant updates since Bookworm came out.