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Linux Announcement from Sony, Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu
BJH writes: "This hit the newspapers in Japan this morning - Sony, Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi and Mitsubishi (basically the entire electronics industry in Japan, with the notable exception of Matsushita) will be setting up the "Japan Embedded Linux Consortium" in cooperation with TurboLinux and a whole bunch of other groups to produce a version of Linux suitable for use as an embedded OS for home electronics, mobile phones, cars, industrial machinery - in fact, just about anything with a CPU. Here's a Nikkei article in Japanese (no login needed) and another one here in English (you'll need to log in for this one). This looks like it's going to be big - hold onto your hats, guys..." If anyone has found an English URL that doesn't require a login, please post it below.
I'd say a full 90% of the systems out there have absolutely no need for a full (or even stripped down) Linux (or anything else) kernel. Cellphones?! gimme a break!
I'd agree that it does seem like putting Linux on a cellphone might be a bit of overkill, but I think this actually makes sense given the Japanese electronics market.
The Japanese article mentioned "cellphones, home electronics, and car navigation systems," all of which are fairly complex pieces of machinery here in Japan, more often than not connected to the internet:
It seems that the software in these things would be fairly complex. It seems to me like it's a good idea that these things all use a compatible OS -- I'm frankly amazed and quite happy that all of these companies have decided to decide upon an open and freely-available standard. The nice thing about Linux is that it's free, it's available now, and companies can modify it to make it as light as they need. Just because they're choosing Linux, it doesn't mean that my next cell phone is going to have X and a complete TeX installation on it or anything.
Because of LABOR cost!
Linux has proved itself to be the most portable OS ever created. This will make it much easier to get it on any device they are running.
Once they have Linux on the device, they can enlist any Linux developer to help them develope additional functions and interfaces.
What's the other choice. Pick an OS that must be paid for ($5 added to the cost of a consumer device is massive). TRAIN ALL DEVELOPERS to use program this OS. When the next device is developed, buy a different OS and you get to TRAIN ALL DEVELOPERS again. Hiring is complicated and expensive because you'll have to TRAIN ALL DEVELOPERS you hire in the exotic OS your using. By another company and you have to TRAIN ALL DEVELOPERS in this exotic OS the probably have never seen before.
(Is the pattern emerging yet?)
Companies like to have standards that don't involve the areas where they're trying to differentiate themselves, make it cheaper for them to operate, and make their products cheaper. $5 for EPOCH on each production unit cell phone would be a large percentage of the production cost, and that isn't even considering what it cost to train someone in the basics of the OS, let alone paying someone with enough experience to actually be good with the OS.
There is every reason in the world for the hardware companies to want to standardize on a OS layer peice of software. It'll let device operate better together (many more total units sold - all the boats will rise in that wave), make the devices cheaper to develope (making the wave bigger), and by avoiding the proprietary OSs (kiss our butt M$) will make the devices cheaper to market (oohh, big wave).
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000713/tc/japan_ dc_1.html
Linux Today has this sory and provides the URL http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/07/13/asia/wires/japan_w g/
Why would anyone want to try to run Linux on a mobile phone? What exactly do you gain over all the other long-standing and well respected things like EPOCH?
How exactly is OS style development going to work on an OS for a burglar alarm - I mean these devices aren't readily available for playing around with.
Maybe Linux really is suited to this stuff, I don't know, but it seems odd to take an OS designed as a multi-user system for one of the world's most powerful* and power-hungry CPU architectures and try to turn it into an OS for a phone.
Has anyone done a good comparison of Embedded Linux with other embedded OSes?
This seems more about some hardware companies getting scared that the software layer is becoming more important. _They_ would love to have a non-proprietary OS that everyone uses - because then the hardware becomes the deciding factor in product quality.
So, less about really wanting to have the best OS, more about marketplace survival tactics...
*Powerful relative to CPUs for embedded devices
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OK, sorry for the bogus link to the Nikkei English site - I didn't know that their registration policy requires a credit-card number (!), even for a free trial.
It seems that the only English article around at the moment is here at CNNfn; they have a reasonable summary of the situation, but it's slightly different in content from the Nikkei article, so for your edification, I've included my translation of the Japanese Nikkei piece. (My comments are in italics.)
OS development collaboration for digital home electronics
23 Japanese electronic and telecommunications companies, including Toshiba, Sony and NEC, in addition to two universities, including Waseda University, have reached a basic agreement on collaborative development of an OS for controlling digital home electronics, mobile phones, car navigation systems and other products. Utilizing the rapidly-spreading free (This is "free" as in "free beer") OS, Linux, the OS will be made available to the public to use freely (This "free" is "libre"), and is expected to contribute to lower product development cost. The group will also call for participation from overseas corporations in an effort to make the OS a global de facto standard. Microsoft currently controls the world market for PC-based operating systems, but the Japanese group will join together to create a common infrastructure for an OS for next-generation information devices, such as digital home electronics, which are anticipated to undergo rapid growth in the future.
A controlling organization, the Japan Embedded Linux Consortium, will be founded on the 13th of this month. Other than Toshiba, etc., Fujitsu, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric will also participate. In addition to software companies such as TurboLinux and Elmic Systems, Waseda University's engineering department (Waseda is one of the top two or three private universities in Japan) and the Toyohashi University of Technology will take part.
One nuance that doesn't come through well in translation is the bit where they say the OS will be freely available - an exaggerated interpretation would be something like "the consortium is planning to be so gracious as to make the OS freely available to the public", an interesting bit of spin considering that they would have to make at least the kernel, and quite possibly much of userland, available, thanks to the GPL.
One other important point is the absence of Matsushita (and thereby National/Panasonic and Aiwa) from the consortium, which foreshadows the possibility of yet another Beta/VHS war. One has to wonder what Matsushita are going to do in reply to this (I very much doubt that they would just ignore it).
Your next cell may be a complete personal data/communications device that approaches the power of current PDAs, palmtops, or even a laptop.
Personally, I think the convergence should be the other way round. If you need a bog-simple mobile, use one. If you need a 'complete personal data/communications device', buy a full-blown PDA with built in cellphone capabilities.
However, this does put a large corporate consortium in a position of direct influence over an open source product. The jury should be out for quite some time to determine whether this is good or bad for Linux.
Cobblers. I get tired of hearing this lame 'they're going to hijack or steal our OS' line. The point about the Linux develeopment model is that it can't be hijacked, not without serious forkage. Its a benevolent dictatorship, effectively, and if Linus doesnt like it, it wont happen. I dont know how the hell any consortium is going to change that. Swamp the kernel list with excellent patches containing subtle code restructuring the OS to their own nefarious ends? Um, nope.
Now's the time for all of us to be communicating with consortium member companies to make our communal wishes and concerns known.
My main wish is that people thought a wee bit more before they started spouting paranoid nonsense. What exactly is it that causes this kneejerk 'the big boys are gonna steal our toy' reaction? Answers on a postcard...
Pax,
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However, this does put a large corporate consortium in a position of direct influence over an open source product. The jury should be out for quite some time to determine whether this is good or bad for Linux.
There are a lot of opportunities here for the Linux community to get even more widespread acceptance and active use of Linux and other O-S OS's. Now's the time for all of us to be communicating with consortium member companies to make our communal wishes and concerns known.
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
Linux in cellphones and pagers and cars and industrial machinery? WHY?
Why bog down the processor with a full embedded operating system? I don't understand this. I design embedded systems for a living and I'd say a full 90% of the systems out there have absolutely no need for a full (or even stripped down) Linux (or anything else) kernel. Cellphones?! gimme a break!
I'm happy and all to see Linux move out into every corner of the market but isn't this a little like porting Linux to the Commodore 64? "Big Iron" in the sense of embedded systems may be perfect for Linux (cell tower stations, control systems for industrial machinery, etc.) but why would you want Linux running in the mouse you're using or the cellphone or pager you're wearing?
I can't get in to the English article and I can't read Japanese but unless they are talking about providing a RT scheduler and not a whole lot else this isn't making any sense. Hell if they only provide the scheduler and a few services it isn't even Linux IMO. "Based on" yes but not "is".
Well, if you take a look here - you'll see some patches which are planned to be merged into the kernel. The latest version of the patch is up to nine rescheduling points, and provides latencies of less than 1ms 99.999% of the time. So the latencies problems in the mainstream kernel should be history soon. Also, I don't know how many people actually do know this, but the PlayStation 3 (not just the development machine) will be Linux based.
Hetz (Heunique)
Anyone who decides to use it will find that they're at least 2 generations behind by the time they can get a product to market.
Well, that's how it is now, isn't it? When the next new stable kernel is released, hand a copy of the source code to your favorite comp sci grad and ask them to develop some improvements. If they've not been actively involved in studying or developing the kernel before you hand them the source, it's going to take them a while just to read the code, let alone grok it, and it will be a while after that before they coud significantly improve it.
Meanwhile, the current kernel developers already know the code, know where the weaknesses are, know how they want to improve it, and will be quite a ways ahead of anyone starting from scratch. This, BTW, is one of the reasons why ESR says that opening your currently closed source will not hurt your business; if your competitors decide to copy what you've done, it will take them a long time to get up to speed.