Drones have just found their new best friends: coders. On Oct. 13, the Linux Foundation unveiled a nonprofit organization called the Dronecode Project ( https://www.dronecode.org ), an open-source development initiative uniting thousands of coders for the purpose of building an aerial operating system for drones. Hopeful that the project will bring order to the chaos that has surrounded software developers as they sprint to carve out a share of the bourgeoning market for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), UAS operators are now asking whether Dronecode will finally provide the horsepower and industry-wide support needed to launch a universal drone operating system.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2841493/one-code-to-rule-them-all-dronecode.html
(Score: 2) by albert on Friday October 31 2014, @04:49AM
It claims to be an OS, but then I see a reference to the Linux Foundation. Is this a Linux distribution? It's unlikely we need a new OS or even a new Linux distribution for this. There are plenty of non-Linux RTOS solutions for this, and there are plenty of Linux distributions for this. Fundamentally this is the same problem space as any old robot.
Is it an app? Is it a library of common drone functionality? Does it even run on the drone, or is it for a base station?
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday October 31 2014, @12:57PM
It homes in on Laura's gigantic bush.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 31 2014, @05:25AM
Musk was right, we just can't seem to keep ourselves from building skynet piece by piece.
Imagine when Poettering decides that all the drones need to be controlled by his daemon, or demon as the case may be.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @07:28AM
Poettering, the new Hitler!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @07:05AM
But will they want to use systd?
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Friday October 31 2014, @02:59PM
Yeah, they will demand the use of 'systd', whatever that is, and they will then use it to bootstrap a MS Bob based OS...in the most Nazi-like way possible, while being led by zombie Idi Amin.
Are you happy now?
Now run out and play with the other kiddies, the fresh air will do you some good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @08:25AM
Developing the kind of reliable, can't fail systems required for aviation - especially unmanned - is not something that the average open-source keener can handle. It takes a whole new level of code development - "oh look, it's K&R so it must be OK" just doesn't cut it.
An open source project like this might be OK for a toy "drone" but not for anything serious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @12:20PM
No, can't fail system is needed for a manned aircraft. Unmanned is not as demanding. Secondly, you don't even know what kind of people are contributing to this, so how can you go and judge this as a toy immediately?
(Score: 1) by lizardloop on Friday October 31 2014, @01:15PM
Are you saying that any open source project is only fit for a toy? If you are then you'd better tell all the people running BSD and Linux kernels to stop doing anything "serious".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @05:11PM
I have been running *nix servers for years in a web farm and don't know anything about this supposed reliability you seem to think exists. What I do know about is a constant stream of bug fixes that I have to apply regularly and a bunch of problems that are always requiring fixes.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday October 31 2014, @06:55PM
Please share your biggest issue with us. My bet is on a userland application that is owned by a company that has a paid-for support option.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by riondluz on Monday November 03 2014, @02:14AM
then you're not doing it right
we pray for world peace and god gives us karaoke