Some real life examples

Linux in space

A Linux system has been used to test plant growth and development in zero/low gravity situations on board the Space Shuttle.

The system was a PC104-based 486 computer, linked to Earth via a NASA comms link. Connected to the computer were an array of devices, include gas chromatographs, video cameras/frame grabbers, A/D cards, accelerometers, pumps and a touch-sensitive LCD.

Monitoring earthquakes

The PASSCAL software suite is designed for field processing of seismic data. It was designed under SunOS, but was ported to Linux a few years ago providing a low-cost alternative to expensive Sparc-based laptops for field work.

A useful article explaining the advantages of Linux when developing PASSCAL can be found here.

Linux in physics, maths & astronomy

Linux is being used around the world for the control and analysis of high-end physics & applied maths:

• CERN
• NIST
• NASA (Beowulf)
• MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science
• Los Alamos (Loki and Avalon)
• John Hopkins Medical School
• Goddard Space Flight Center

Monitoring waste water with Linux

The Water Studies Centre at Monash University has developed a real-time Linux based waste-water monitoring system that has the following features:

• A distributed (RS-485) network of sample pretreatment and analyser modules, controlled by a supervising Linux host computer
• Real-time analysis of multiple chemical parameters
• 10+ analyses of each parameter per hour
• Small sample consumption, minimal reagent usage
• Uptimes of 7 days+
• Full net connectivity with remote control & monitoring features
• Command line, graphical and web interfaces

Linux was selected as the development and run-time environment for this project because:

• It had been proven to be very stable, which was a critical point in a system that was expected to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• It had excellent networking tools, including secure links (via SSH)
• A range of high quality development tools, including gcc, Python and Tcl/Tk with Tix and BLT
• A number of required features could be provided by existing free software packages, including gnuplot, Apache, NumPy and Octave.
• Linux can be operated remotely from the command-line or X-Windows
• It was free!
• The source code was freely available, which made some necessary kernel modifications very straightforward

Our experiences showed that Linux was very successful, with only a couple of disadvantages:

1. People unfamiliar with Linux may be (initially) apprehensive about using a free operating system in a commercial environment
2. Plant operators need to be trained to use X-Windows, although a window manager that resembles Windows 95/98, such as fvwm-95 or icewm helps

Prev - Next

Updated: 20 June 1999