QNX
 | “If possible, could I have some more?” This article could be expanded on and use more details, and needs them as much as XP-tan needs more RAM! |
QNX (now known as QNX Neutrino) is a full-featured but minimalist real-time OS that is obscure but extremely widely used in embedded systems. It is an extremely stable system, used in automobiles, industrial applications, medical electronics, nuclear power plants, and powers the world's most powerful router.
| QNX-tan | |
| [[File:|250px]] | |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | QNX-tan |
| Other Names | QNX Neutrino |
| Human Name(s) | Quinn X. Dodge |
| Faction | Anti$oft Coalition |
| Lineage | independent (influenced by, but not descended from Unix) |
| Rival(s) | OS-9, ROMDOS, Windows CE (competitors among embedded OSes), the Linux/Unix Consortium. |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 168 cm (5'6") |
| Hair Color | cyan |
| Eye Color | yellow |
| Weapon(s) | Photon beam cannon |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | Sep 2006 |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | QNX |
| Developer(s) | QNX Software Systems, RIM (since 2010) |
| Debut | 1982 (QNX), 2001 (QNX Neutrino) |
| Latest release | v6.5 (2010-11) |
Technical details
QNX became freeware with source code available to hobbyists when QNX Software Systems was bought out by Harmon Kardon in 2004, but the source code became restricted again when QNX was bought out by RIM (Research in Motion) in 2010. A variant of QNX is used as the OS in the Blackberry Playbook.
Character details
General
QNX-tan is represented as cyan-haired woman who dresses in semi-formal attire. She wears buttoned shirts with a lab coat and tie, and the tie always has an even number of tie clips on them, since she counts only (or much prefers to) in even numbers. Her tendency for everything to be even and symmetric references the numbering scheme of QNX, which is now up to version 6.x, but there is no QNX 3 or 5. In her hair, she wears a hair clip on each side, one "QNX"-shaped, the other in the shape of the Neutrino logo.
She is very level-headed, difficult to faze, values minimalism, and doesn't tolerate error from years of experience running mission-critical jobs. Among her fields of experience are mechanical work, nuclear physics, medicine, and medical technology. Her professional attitude even extends into her daily life out of force-of-habit; she is emotionally distant and somewhat reclusive because of all the responsibilities she has. When she interacts with others, she is polite and agreeable, but often doesn't talk with others for long; as a real-time OS-tan, she will drop the conversation when another job needs her attention.
Contrasting with her expertise in various fields of science and engineering, she is terrible at domestic tasks, and her attempts at cooking often turn into dangerous 'science experiments'.
QNX-tan is one of the most powerful OS-tans alive, since QNX is the most powerful and widely-used embedded OS. That gives her a tremendous hardware base to draw power from, which includes the nuclear power plants powered by QNX, but she is reluctant to use that power and willingly squanders it since she already has several responsibilities, and is afraid of getting corrupted by it.
Her weapon of choice is a laser cannon that she built herself.
Family and relationships
Unix Family
She is overall ambivalent towards the Unix Family, and has had a love-hate attitude towards them ever since her early life. From the beginning she admired Unix's philosophies and strived to be just like her. As she learned more about Unix as a person and her family, she grew disillusioned, noticing that Unix strayed far from her ideals, the hypocrisy of her daughters, and their in-fighting. The Unix Wars further disillusioned her.
During the Unix Wars, she was drafted to fight and serve as a medic, but was mistreated and discriminated against by the full-blooded Unices who considered her inferior for being 'just' a 'Unix-like' and not a full-blooded Unix OS-tan. For years, she had grown to despise most of them except for their defectors. Allegedly, she intentionally neglected Solaris' very sickly younger sister Spring OS-tan, whom Solaris trusted her with, and left her to die.
Years have passed, and she doesn't hate them anymore. Some of them now respect her for the power and influence she gained after the wars, though they might not admit it outright because of their strict, bloodline-based family structure. She hardly ever sees them though, being busy with her work.
Anti$oft Coalition
She is a part-time member of the Anti$oft Coalition, and while she doesn't have a vendetta against the Windows-tans, she joined because she became friends with OS/2-tan and RISC OS-tan back when they were founding the faction, combined with her sympathy for fellow underdogs. She's not much of an underdog anymore, except in the mobile market, but continues to be supportive of them despite their continuing bad track record as a group. She is willing to join in their tactics, because she feels it is one the only times she can drop her professionalism.
TRS-80-tan is slightly antagonistic of her, annoyed that QNX-tan keeps showing off new pieces of technology.
Blackberry-tan
Blackberry-tan became QNX's boss in 2010 and urged her to enter the mobile market. QNX-tan shows some discontent towards her, since her venture into the mobile market under Blackberry's orders went poorly. However, she is grateful that Blackberry-tan still grants her some autonomy, referencing the QNX communities that were allowed to continue since then.
Others
After leaving open sorcery to be a proprietary, commercial OS again, some of the open source OS-tans see her as a traitor.
History and background
Early years
Unix Wars
2010-present
In 2010, corresponding with RIM buying out QNX, Blackberry-tan became her boss. QNX-tan gave up on open sorcery to be a fully-commercial OS again, but still acknowledges her hobbyist followers.
Entering the mobile market, she and Blackberry-tan were competing against Windows Mobile, iOS and Android. Their venture didn't go well, the Playbook running QNX wasn't, and still isn't very successful, but QNX-tan and Blackberry-tan will try again as they are still competing.
In her spare time, when Blackberry-tan doesn't need her, QNX-tan continues her various engineering work.
