Qnx is an old OS who has already given proof of its capacities. In fact it is used in critical environments like the US spacecraft, nuclear stations... But it wasn't adapted to what an OS offers today: multimedia capabilities. It's done now with the release of Qnx RTP (Realtime Platform) which is free for non commercial use and can be downloaded free from the Qnx site.

The install package you will get from the Qnx website is only 40 Mb (an iso image of 90 Mb is also available). You won't need any driver disks to match your configuration because Qnx, like BeOS, doesn't support a thousand of different hardwares. But hopefully the list of requirements is big enough to handle a lot of peripherals (Banshee processors, 3Com NICs, PCI64...)
If you want to install Qnx on a partition because you don't have Windows, you will have to burn the ISO image on a CD. You will be able to boot from it setting up your BIOS settings. Then after a few "easy" questions (which disk, partition size, boot loader...) you'll have it installed.

The 40 Mb package is a Windows file so you'll need this OS to run it. In this case, the installation will ask you only 3 questions.
- Where do you want to put the Qnx files ?
Yes, Qnx installs itself into a DOS directory so no need to deal with partition considerations. When starting the computer, you will be asked to run Windows or Qnx. That's really easy.
- What disk size must be alocated to the workspace ?
The workspace is where you will put your files, install softwares... You can use from 2 Mb to 2 Gb of space. If you create a workspace of 2 Mb, the complete installation will be 60 Mb only. It will be enough if you just want to have a look at Qnx but if you are a Linuxer you will need more...
- What is the password of root ?
Qnx is, like Linux, a multi-user OS. So you'll have to use an administrator login (root). When you enter the password here, the Windows keyboard setting applies but when starting Qnx the first time, the keyboard will be a QWERTY one. So you may have to look for some keys on the keyboard at boot time. Strange that QSSL didn't think about it.

The opened screen displays to you the Qnx workspace. At the bottom of it, there are a "Launch" button and a bar displaying running applications. So we are in a known land. On the right side, there is the Shelf, a button bank you can configure as you like. I'll let you discover each application that lies there, I'll talk just about some of them...
First thing to do is to localize the system. This is done through the program found under the "Localization" button. Then I launched a Terminal window just to see what was there. I issued some commands just to confirm what I already knew, Qnx is a Unix-like system. So you'll find the famous Unix directories: etc, var, tmp... and the famous commands: ls, mount, man... Arghh, the last one is not installed automatically. It will be difficult to find the arguments needed by the commands...

I tried to go on the Web and I was really surprised that Qnx ripped the configuration of Windows (in case of file installation) to set automatically its network parameters. I really like when I don't have to set it up myself :)

There is a great application called the "Package Manager". It allows to install in a very efficient way a new software; be it a new driver or any Qnx software. I checked if I could compile any C program entering a "cc" command in a terminal and Qnx said: /bin/sh: cc: not found
Ok no problem, so I used the Package Manager to install it from the CD (if you don't have it, you can download/install it from the Qnx site). I have chosen the C compiler, then I hit the "Install" button and the CDROM led went green and immediately switched off again. I thought something went wrong but I tried to enter the "cc" command again and ... the C compiler was there waiting a C source to compile ! No "make" command to use, no configuration file to edit, no install script to run and it was there, installed, ready for use. Incredible !

When I saw the Package Manager the first time I thought every software would be easy to install. So I tried to find serious applications. But I found softwares (Apache and Samba) in the traditional archive form: Tar/Gzip. And the pain is here again: you'll need to issue a lot of commands into a terminal window and above all you'll need time to do it... I hope this will be enhanced in the future and all softwares will be available in Qnx package form.

As a user, I think this first version of Qnx could avoid little mistakes: problems in the display viewing mpeg videos, the keyboard setting "omission", an option to avoid displaying the login/password window at boot time when only "root" user is defined...
But there are nice features never seen elsewhere: when you try to get a screenshot, a little window helps you to grab what you want, an audio/video player with "I want that" options (Digital Audio output, HDTV, all kind of video format in output..). I think Qnx, growing a little bit, will become a must have for all users looking for a "no headaches" OS.
QSSL did with this release what no other did: an OS that boots in 30 seconds, a "new" OS with virtually all Linux applications available, and something hard to explain. I tried it for a while and it seems that there is power underlying, there, hidden, somewhere...

Philippe 'Elwood' Ferrucci
Jay Miner Society
TeamAMIGA
ATO
First of all, a user...