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Open Source In Embedded Systems

Posted by michael on from the I-have-to-boot-my-vacuum-cleaner? dept.

coxjohnson writes: "Technology Review reports on the OS battle between Microsoft and Open Source for the lucrative embedded computing market. Since 99% of computers can be found in embedded applications, an Open Source victory in this sector could deal a major blow to Microsoft." Good informative overview of the competition for embedded OSes.

3 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. What a BS Article by duplicate-nickname · · Score: 5
    They talk about how 99% of computers are embedded systems and then go on about Open Source vs. Windows in the embedded market. However, most of that 99% comes from things like car ECMs, security systems, microwaves, etc. These things run on small customized code and the OSS/Windows guys are not trying to compete in this market. They're shooting for the cell phones, PVRs, etc. That's probably closer to 5% of the market....maybe.

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  2. Been there, Done That by Greyfox · · Score: 5
    I did some work on an Embedded Linux system. We did have the RT issues, though we were looking at a couple of the RT solutions out there for Linux and thought one of them would work well enough for our needs. Interestingly, BIOS issues were a big concern. We had a choice of licensing a BIOS or rolling our own and we ended up deciding to roll our own. Other problems included getting drivers for the proprietary video card. The company we were dealing with apparently had one person working on development of the driver code and was constantly gating our devlopment. Apart from that, it was a pretty good platform and would have saved us a considerable chunk of change over licensing all the components at a few bucks per component per machine. Over a large run (1,000,000) of machines, that adds up fast.

    Of course, a couple of other lessions learned from that job are that you should hire developers who know the platform you're using. Moving a bunch of Win* programmers with no previous Linux experience over to a Linux platform seems to be a recipe for disaster. Also, a clueless manager can spell doom for a project. Well, we knew that from before, but I've never seen a project heading for destruction quite that fast before. It was actually kind of impressive in a morbid sort of way.

    Anyway, Linux can be a good choice of environment for at least some embedded projects and if it fits your needs it can save you a considerable amount of money in the process.

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  3. The important point is by Cardhore · · Score: 5

    not to use Windows XP in embedded MP3 players.

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