Comment Re:Hush... (Score 1) 184
This is a huge sucky problem already. I don't deal with robots per se, but with all kinds of other manufacturing tools which are all controlled by PCs (or by PLCs which connect to PCs.) Some have the PCs built into the body of the tool.
Making a tool designed to last 20 years dependent on a PC designed to last 5 and an OS supported for 3 insures lots and lots of problems. This would be a great place for Linux, yet all the tools I see use DOS or Windows PCs (even the new ones.) What this means is that companies with these tools have to deal with the logistics of finding replacement parts for 286's, or keep Windows 95 install media around because the app won't run on anything newer.
I've found that this seems to endure (at least in part) because by and large people don't seem to give a shit about problems that won't crop up for 5-10 years (they assume they'll have moved on to another position or company by then.) It's pretty frustrating to deal with though. It would be nice if in addition to a general purpose OS, there was general purpose hardware that remained stable over a longer time frame.