Bizzare Game at my workplace.

[JonnyBoy]

I work at an arcade/fun center (go karts and all that) and we have a Fast and the Furious arcade driving cab. An oddly, one time we started it up and god what looked to be a windows style error box. Something about the program gun.exe failing to initiliaze. All the games we get from some company but one that runs off windows? Wierd.

[Wade]

A lot of modern games run from Windows.

Wade

[paigeoliver]

A lot of modern games run from Windows.

Wade

Yep, it makes development time and the hardware dramatically cheaper.

[Minwah]

Yep, it makes development time and the hardware dramatically cheaper.

Probably makes problems more common too 

[webgeek]

Probably makes problems more common too

I doubt it. A stripped down version of 2000 or XP is VERY stable. This is why it's used for kiosks as well. Don't get me wrong, XP still isn't as stable as some versions of Unix, but a well-configured and maintained version of XP is as solid as many of the weaker Linux distros.

I don't remember the exact statistic, but a 3rd party company did a technical survey and found something like 90+% of all Windows problems are poorly written drivers. This is why Microsoft instituted that whole driver certification process.

Have fun!

Mike

[Lilwolf]

Yup.

And its AMAZING what a pc can do when you program to the hardware you have.  Heck, if most applications only worked for either ATI or NVidia you would get much better output.  Then stack in that that you don't care about older computer or older video cards so you can really max out all the settings!

But at this level... The OS is there for the core API mainly.... But even then you aren't doing a lot of your code in OpenGL or D3D so choosing XP is probably there for the ease of development, learning curve for the APIs, and later for easier PC / XBox ports.

[Minwah]

I doubt it. A stripped down version of 2000 or XP is VERY stable. This is why it's used for kiosks as well. Don't get me wrong, XP still isn't as stable as some versions of Unix, but a well-configured and maintained version of XP is as solid as many of the weaker Linux distros.

Still, doesn't it make you wonder why Microsoft don't use Windows in Xbox's??  Proof that Window's is dodgy IMO.  Not that I dislike it, and I agree XP is very stable.

A local cash machine I used had damn Windows error messages all over the screen.  Admittedly it still worked, it was just very hard to see the options behind the error messages.

[RayB]

Still, doesn't it make you wonder why Microsoft don't use Windows in Xbox's??

[Minwah]

Umm, they do. It's just a special stripped/modded version. It uses DirectX at its core. There just isn't the usually GUI since an XBOX isn't mouse-driven.

Really?  I stand corrected then 

[romperwomb]

A local cash machine I used had damn Windows error messages all over the screen.  Admittedly it still worked, it was just very hard to see the options behind the error messages.

Anyone else notice that the exact locations that once had our beloved arcade games now have cash machines in their place?  Probably dropped on location by the same vendors that owned the games...

[jedi27]

There is a flavor of windows which is for embedded devices...  it could be considered a stripped down version... perhaps a flavor of this is indeed used in the XBOX...

I've personally found XP to be the most stable thing around any of my systems...

[Bloinkxp]

That would be XP Embeded.  It is for ATM's/KIOSKs/and things that do not need configuration *at all* after implementation.   It is very stable since the platform only uses MS drivers or Embeded Certified drivers.

For the record XBox's uses the Windows 2000 kernel.  It uses a "hybrid" DX8/9 for the Graphics and a really pumped up Nvidia Driver set.

To be honest, I have found Win2k/XP to be very stable for me.

[RayB]

To be honest, I have found Win2k/XP to be very stable for me.

Me too. Only times I ever got the Blue Screen of Death was when I had hardware problems (faulty memory slot).

[stratjakt]

Three things can cause BSOD under XP or 2000

  - faulty or misconfigured hardware (most commonly RAM, or someone using a cheap onboard RAID 1 controller as his boot drive - never do this)

 - bad video drivers, since for the sake of fast video (games), the video drivers run in ring 0, and are prone to segfaults.

The first is the end-user or manufacturers fault, the second is the video card makers.  It could be argued that the video subsystem should be protected, and thus, it's MS's fault, but then, video performance would be slow, and the OS unsuitable for games or other 3d-intensive apps, so either way, people would be bitching about it.  NT4 was this way (and thusly sucks as a gaming platform)

Most errors I see on windows machines are user errors, or application problems. 

It's just hip to hate microsoft, and I'm constantly flamed for "defending them", which isn't what I do, I just hate ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow---.  I'd be just as quick to correct a MSFT sales rep who's spouting nonsense about linux.

Anyhow, the NT kernel is a great piece of code, it's rock-solid, fast, and very flexible.  This is on the BIOS chip in the xbox, used in every CE device out there, and tons of arcade hardware. 

To be on topic, F&F is more closely related to the XBox than to a PC, although the two are mere cousins.

Plenty of arcade hardware runs on linux, too.  And they crash as well (for the same reason as msft based devices - hardware failures). 

Golden Tee runs linux, IIRC, as do Megatouches.  I believe most IT stuff does.  It suits the purpose, and licensing couldnt be any more cost effective.

I saw a megatouch reboot itself at the bar, and there was the little tux logo in the corner, and like all linux based devices, it took about 5 minutes to boot up. 

I hate this about my Tivo, another linux based device.  Anyone who owns a Tivo knows what I mean.  Ever have the power blink while watching a great show, then realize you're going to miss 5 minutes of it while that stupid thing boots up?  My Tivo has locked up and/or had weird glitches requiring a reboot, too, just to show that all the philosophical bulldink in the world wont produce bug free code.

This rant belongs on slashdot, where it would be appropriately modded down "-1, anti-groupthink"