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Lineo near Death

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the can't-say-i'm-suprised dept.

An anonymous reader notd a bit running on LinuxGram about Lineo about ready to croak. It paints a pretty bleak view of the Linux embedded system company. Oddly enough, I'm still not exactly sure what they were trying to do.

3 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Re:linux inside? by pstreck · · Score: 0, Troll

    uh huh.. sure, now show me proof!

    --

    Later,
    Phil
  2. Lineo's mission by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 2, Troll
    Their stated mission was to be the premier source for Linux-enabled embedded computing in the science and technology sector. We bought a few of their accelerators and let me tell you, they sucked crap off the floor.

    First, the particle reconfiguration matrices were hopelessly complicated to calculate using their UI. Second, the phase-alignment eigenvalues they used as defaults were circa 1974. But worst of all was the induction shielding--we had bitflips left and right including one memorable occasion when we lost a whole night's processing.

    I'm not sorry OR surprised to see them go under.

  3. Re:How can this be? by fmaxwell · · Score: 2, Troll

    Ignoring the childish insult, you seem to think that Lineo is some kind of odd phenomenon in the Linux marketplace. They are not. Every failed Linux-centric company had 'value added' proprietary software that they sold -- either with or without the OS. Stormix (now bankrupt) did. Mandrake does and they've had to start begging for money to keep them afloat. Sure, Lineo did more than just try to sell Embedix -- they also tried to sell tools for a free OS, but the simple fact is that the Linux marketplace has seen one company after another go belly-up.

    And the reason is simple: Linux is viewed as "free software." And by "Linux", I mean the OS, the tools, everything. There is an entire subculture that finds the notion of paying for software offensive (though many of them want to get paid for writing it at their jobs). You'd have better luck getting the average vegetarian to eat a cheeseburger than you would getting the average Linux afficionado to buy expensive development tools.