Wind River going up, up, up! Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Wind River going up, up, up!

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To: JMD who wrote (6097)	8/17/1999 11:06:00 AM
From: Mark Brophy	Read Replies (2) of 10309

You've hit an important point. A real-time "operating system" isn't really an operating system at all because it doesn't mediate the use of system resources between competing apps. If your browser and spreadsheet tried to write to the screen at the same time, you'd be looking at garbage. Microsoft provides a mechanism for both apps to use the system at the same time without tripping over each other. Even if you're a software developer such as Netscape who knows that Microsoft creates poor quality operating systems, you'll still develop your browser for Windows because there's a large potential customer base for your product. A real-time "operating system" provides a set of low-level functions to an app that has complete control of the entire system, so no mediation of resources is necessary. So, an app developer will only choose an RTOS if he believes it will increase engineering productivity. If a fuel injection system engineer is only going to use a small subset of the RTOS functions, he might choose to forgo the use of an RTOS altogether. A PC app developer has no such option. And if a competing RTOS vendor in the future offers a lower royalty rate and/or more functionality/reliability and/or better technical support, the RTOS app developer might choose the new RTOS for the next version. That threat keeps the RTOS vendors honest and they can't reap windfall profits like Microsoft. Wind River and their investment bankers sold the company in the secondary and convertible bond offerings as an "operating system" vendor like Microsoft and investors gave the company a valuation based on an earnings growth rate similar to Microsoft. Failure to understand the differences (and the nature of the investment banking industry) cost them a lot of money.

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