In honor of Linux week at CrunchGear we sat down with Charles Ogilvie, Director of In-Flight Entertainment, to talk about how this start-up airline made Tux fly.
CG: Why did you pick linux for RED?
CO: Linux is very stable and agile. We were able to pare down the embedded seat-back side to only the libraries we need, license a container app and then write the code needed to tie everything together
Which distribution are you using?
Flavors of Red Hat & Fedora (we have embedded seat-back units, seat & distribution boxes and a head-end that consists of some file servers)
How long was it in testing?
We’ve been developing it for 4 years and it has gone through numerous iterations. Before a new version is released, it is tested on a simulation rack
Did Microsoft approach you about running Windows on the back end?
We’ve talked with a lot of software vendors.
What was the hardest part about creating the system? Was it the software? The hardware?
The hardest part is maintaining agility. The beauty of the architecture is that we can continue to move forward, innovate and constantly look for additional areas to add new, unprecedented functionality like our inflight food ordering system or seat-to-seat chat.
Why don’t more people use Linux in high traffic situations like this?
I don’t know. They should.
How often does it crash? The Linux machines, not the planes…
Resets or reboots occur in different areas. Because we are trying different open source games, we do notice issues with porting them for example. Over time, we work through those issues. Our inflight team members (flight attendants) have the ability to reboot seats. The seat units also monitor themselves and can reset themselves if they freeze or lose connectivity (a heart-beat) with the head-end.
What’s the deal with the in-flight chat? Why was that included? Have people connected through that?
Seat-to-seat chat and TV-Chat are some of the most fun features we have. We’ve had everything from people striking up great conversations with other guests in chats to groups using it laugh and have fun while watching the same program. The whole idea behind it is to allow a sense of community to take place in a typically confined, airborne environment. I cannot wait for broadband and the chance for our passengers to chat with the ground
What’s in store for the future besides in-flight Wi-Fi?
The ability to compose a music-video playlist is pretty cool and on the horizon. The READ section is also awesome in that it takes what is typically a bunch of wasted trees (excess newspapers, periodicals) and allows us to be more environmentally friendly and timely with things like news/event info/sports/entertainment etc.
How ironic to see this article after just landing in JFK on a VA flight from SFO. Don’t get too excited about ‘Red’ (which most of us on the plane called BLack given what was on our screen.). A lot more testing (and not by passegers) will be required before the ‘beta, label is removed from the start-up screen (after about a dozen reboots our crew just gave up.)
The community features such as chat and multiplayer gaming are a step in the right direction … People are generally so antisocial on airplanes, including me. The fact that it’s powered by Linux makes it even better
– Tim
These fucking touchscreens are NO FUN if you’re in front of someone tap-tap-tapping on your seatback the entire flight.
Why don’t other airlines do innovative stuff like this? I fly Frontier Airlines regularly and every single seat has a screen behind it. I know they run Linux because I’ve personally seen it crash and rebooting (Gentoo, if you’re curious). Even if I pay $5 for their stupid three channels of DirectTV, I’m usually bored out of my mind. I’d have way more fun hitting on the hottie a few rows down.
Unfortunately this system is definitely alpha software, not beta. On my flight they had to “soft reset” the system and then “hard reset” it before it finally started to work 45 minutes into our flight. My girlfriend experienced the same problem on her two flights. They even had to shut the food ordering system for awhile since there was too much of a backlog of orders (rather than having the system just notify the passengers what the wait time would be).
Basically it is a cool system that has potential but they should have started off with something more basic but that that wasn’t so full of bugs as to make the service pretty pointless.
My first experience with seat back entertainment systems was with Air Canada. I was happy that I wasn’t stuck watching “The Shaggy Dog,” but at the same time, as a software designer, I was disgusted with the quality of the system. Buttons were too small, fonts were illegible, menu hierarchies made no sense, and on top of this there was a large amount of lag when touching. In my opinion it was about as bad as it could possibly be while still functioning.
So I’m happy that these things are becoming widespread, but at the same time, come on, have some pride and make them RIGHT.
What about wi-fi?
Well to help them to fix the bugs, they should release “Red” as open source. All airlines could take advantage of it and add new features.
in-flight “entertainment” is so rarely entertaining that i never bother with it. and in the cattle class, impossible to watch a screen three inches from your nose, even if there was something worth watching
This airline has it down! They will be incredibly successful in the future. They just started to fly out of Seattle two weeks ago, as I stated in my blog!
As they continue to add destinations they will be no reason to not fly them. Great prices, and even better amenities!
I can’t wait for internet connection to enter airspace…this will be a huge breakthrough in technology on board an airplane. Think about how important this will be to so many business people that need to stay in touch while airborne…or even just for entertainment reasons!
It’s a great idea that has been rolled out waaaaay too soon and is still incredibly buggy. It’s funny that he didn’t mention that – everytime I’ve flown with them I’ve been horribly disappointed. If only it worked!
Hey zm, its 24 channels of directv on frontier, not 3.
You’re right ife tech, it is 24 channels of directv on Frontier.
I fly frontier often, can’t even understand the mentality of somebody who would say they have 3 channels. I fly them by choice because the channels are pretty well spread out as to content. The price has jiumped to $7 tho, still worth it for me. Would really like wifi.
God forbid they add voice applications, or even mobile phones.
I think I’d stop flying altogether if I had to listen to some of the gobby twats you find on t’internet.