The concept of real time operating systems is hardly a new thing. But to hear about it coming to mainstream Linux distros does offer the promise of preemptive scheduling among other cool abilities.

Real Time operating systems have traditionally been a separate breed from mainstream ones.

Thanks to efforts to incorporate Real Time enhancements into Linux, standard mainstream Linux may well become a real, Real Time OS real soon.

A Real Time OS offers the promise of better response times and a degree of determinism not found in non-Real Time OS’s.

Real Time is often a requirement in embedded applications and control system such as those used in military and medical applications, as well as many other verticals.

According to at least one leading Linux vendor, though, Real Time has applicability across nearly the entire Linux landscape.

“I’d argue that you could talk to just about any customer in any vertical and they’d care about faster response time and predictability,” Red Hat (Quote, Chart) CTO Brian Stevens told internetnews.com.

“I don’t think that Real Time any longer is a class of an OS. In the old days you were either Real Time or you were not.”

In October 2004, embedded Linux vendor MontaVista kicked off an effort to get Real Time enhancements into Linux.

By August 2005, they were claiming Real Time breakthroughs for Linux…. Source: InternetNews