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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux in hospitals? (lemdro.id)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was in the ED the other day and noticed that they use a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 10. My question is two part.

Do you know of hospitals using Linux?
Besides legacy software and unwanted downtime, is there any reason why they wouldn’t use Linux?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I can give some guesses on 2.

Familiarity. Most people are familiar using Windows. Nurses aren’t necessarily tech savvy, so an unfamiliar system might threw them off.
Maintenance. It’s easier to recruit people who know how to maintain Windows systems. Linux is tricky because it comes in so many different distributions, and any maintainer must be aware of these differences.
UI sucks big time on Linux. It’s so much easier and reliable to just do a winform.
Communication with other equipment. I guess some computers are talking to other medical equipment, and those equipment might only have drivers written in Windows, because that’s what most are using.
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Why change to Linux when Windows is doing the job?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

UI sucks big time on Linux. It’s so much easier and reliable to just do a winform.

I didn’t think about that. Makes sense though, especially when you combine the fact that most hardware will be designed with Windows in mind as you mentioned.

[–] skatrek47 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I wish I could say that the UI in EMRs *doesn’t * stick big time 😭

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I really thought Allscripts was going to get their shit together a bit over a decade ago. We kept hearing from their reps that they were working on a much better UI.

It is still hot garbage.