[stevejb]

A question from someone who knows nothing about QNX / Linux. (Me!)

If QNX is based on Linux (I don't know how loosely), would that suggest that applications such as Open office which run on Linux, could run on QNX and therefore on the PlayBook?

Is it a big stretch for this to be possible?

S

[jstarett]

QNX is unix I believe and open office only comes in linux/windows/mac... they might be able to convert the MAC over but not sure how much that is actually unix anymore.

[ratsttam]

QNX is unix I believe and open office only comes in linux/windows/mac... they might be able to convert the MAC over but not sure how much that is actually unix anymore.

The Mac is loosely based on BSD, which is one of the many forms of *nix. QNX is a Postix compliant OS, so programs programmed in C/C++ can be ported rather easily, with the right compiler...

[johnenglish]

QNX is "unix like" but it is not based on unix/linux.

[Mark Rejhon]

It's still very similiar. Many GNU software have been made to compile under QNX. Porting applications to QNX isn't too different from porting between between Apple and Linux, in terms of coding effort.

There is a LOT of open-source out there, just waiting to be ported to QNX, or to help accelerate development of commercial applications (i.e. open source development and debugging tools of all kinds, LGPL libraries legally usable in commercial software, etc.). A lot of it is already available in QNX (i.e. GCC has been ported to QNX, although the qcc compiler is recommended, since it more natively support the QNX RTOS). I can't wait to learn more about QNX. Developers including me, are thrilled that RIM will be ditching BlackBerryOS in favour of QNX OS which will go into future models of BlackBerry phones eventually.

Back to pratical matters, though...

In answer to the OP question, I think Open Office could be ported to QNX "relatively easily", in theory. Many generic core source code modules would probably compile with no modification, given appropriate common C/C++ libraries. Exactly how easily to port is hard to say, but it could just be a developer or two, even just a university student working in spare time. Porting is a fun 'hacker' challenge sometimes, like the guy who ported Quake to PocketPC back in year 2001. That was just one developer, working in his spare time.

QNX will make more developers interested in making software for BlackBerry, so app development will accelerate compared to before.

[dLo GSR]

i would never use it. i hate openoffice with a passion. trying to do actual work with openoffice because your start-up is too cheap to buy enough MS office licenses = hours upon hours of fixing formatting issues between the two, and days of learning curves trying to find the same options and settings. not to mention that no one else in the high-level business or engineering world even knows what to do with an .odt file. which just forces you to convert it to MS office, and brings formatting issues right back to the table...