‌$BlackBerry(BB)$‌For those wondering why Blackberry QNX is so good:

QNX is generally regarded among engineers as the most advanced, stable and secure operating system in the world. As such it is trusted by the likes of NASA for mission critical operations, large nuclear power stations, factories, high-speed train control systems, and an endless array of embedded systems that require 0% downtime. QNX has earned its reputation and many in the computer industry believe that if QNX had chosen to compete with Microsoft and Apple and pursue a consumer sales route rather than an enterprise route, the world of computing would be generations ahead of where it is now.

So what makes it so great? QNX is built on a micro-kernel, which means that the core component of the OS (the kernel) only contains the bare minimum amount of code that can provide the mechanisms required to run an operating system. The remaining functions in a typical kernel (Monolithic OS) such as the filesystem, device drivers, application IPC, etc. are instead run outside of the kernel in the user space. Essentially what this means is that the kernel is the only software executing at the most privileged hardware level and is therefore infinitely more secure and stable. Bad drivers, software or executions can’t bring it down.

Micro-kernels also allow for RTOS, which simply means an operating system with guaranteed consistency for how long it takes to accept and complete a task. For a real-life scenario, think about the ABS brakes on a car – they require mission critical specifications to occur in real-time or someone can die, so the system running them has to be able to guarantee the delivery, receipt and execution of messages in X amount of time or it does not qualify at RT.

The benefits of this architecture are too numerous to get into here, but one of the main benefit to RIM is its ability to execute multiple platform runtimes at the same time with high efficiency – this is why you can write an application in C/C++, Adobe AIR, Webworks HTML5, and Java and have them all run natively on BlackBerry 10. The benefit to developers and consumers here cannot be understated. Basically ANYONE with any amount of programming experience can make an app, from high-level web based UI’s to low-level 3D games.

QNX takes their design one step further by also offering POSIX support, which is a family of IEEE standards that helps maintain OS and software compatibility. Being a full POSIX system, and not partly POSIX, ensures it’s a lot easier to develop software for the QNX platform.