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Review of Embedded Linux Book
An Anonymous Coward writes "LinuxDevices.com has just published a very detailed review by Jerry Epplin of the new book by Craig Hollabaugh, Embedded Linux -- Hardware, Software, and Interfacing, published by Addison Wesley Professional. Quoting briefly from the review, "A system developer planning to use Linux for an embedded design is faced with a number of decisions, not the least of which is whether to use a packaged commercial Embedded Linux distribution or to devise a homebrew solution from the available free tools and components. The custom approach has much appeal because of its low cost and radical flexibility, allowing one to choose any approach or tool rather than those chosen by the toolkit vendor. But with this flexibility and low cost comes the chaotic documentation typical of Linux. Thus, books like [this one] fill a significant void . . .""
For my first (PPC-based) project where I tried to build a toolchain from scratch I had real problems finding a mutually compatible set of binutils, gcc & glibc that could successfully compile QT Embedded (i.e. C++).
I think this presents a real problem for business. The source code is freely available, but some feature or other doesn't work on your chosen platform without extra patches (gcc in particular, but also glibc). The appropriate set patches is hard to find - Redhat and Montavista know about them, but they ain't telling because their business model effectively revolves around knowing what you need to do to make the software work. So, "Open Source" becomes "Closed Knowledge" because at the end of the day, everyone needs to make money and if the source is free, then charge for the knowledge / expertise.
This makes support an interesting proposition - you get companies who will help you, but only by doling out the information a piece at a time - because in their marketplace, knowledge is power.
Now, Montevista supply (excellent, patched and working) toolchains for all their supported platforms for "free" (or rather the cost of downloading 3 ISO images). By doing so, they effectively try to lock you in to their support model (which is around $10,000 a year for a single point-of-contact), especially when you discover that the range of BSPs they ship is pretty small, and expensive to add to - you're on your own if you're platform isn't on the list.
In the end, it's no better than proprietry solutions - just different.
Jon
This is unfortunately just wishful thinking, as others have pointed out.
1) The development tool chain simply isn't there for non-x86 developments such as ARM, unless you pay for it.
2) The deployment problems are crippling because all apps have to be targeted. And not just ARM vs. x86, but often ARM 9 vs ARM 7, PIII vs. AMD vs. VIA etc.
PDA users simply can't and won't build apps for themselves. The Linux model breaks down, resulting in a gift to MS because vendors are trying to avoid using Java, the only viable VM currently available.
It really is the openness of the code that attracts many to Linux. As to create a new RTOS from scratch, well that's a lot of work and not many companies will fund it. Someone did mention eCos from RedHat, but it's still not Linux.
What I mean is that Linux has a lot of drivers. To use another OS, you will not get as many drivers that come with linux.
Some say that Linux is "too big" for an embedded system. But today's embedded systems are not you daddy's embedded systems. They have more power and more memory.
Also you have the buzz word of Linux. We get a lot of reaction when we mention useing Linux for a device. There are a lot of managers out there that have heard the benefits of Linux, real or otherwise, and want to jump on it if they can.
I don't have much to say about Wind River. I use to work for Lockheed Martin, and had to deal with them quite a bit. The vxWorks we had had no support for virtual memory, and only supported FAT filesystems, which gave us a problem with a database server that had thousands of files. We had found a bug in their code and since our department wasn't a big customer, the support we got was to modify the source code ourselves (we had an NDA). This was pretty much the same as an open-source project answer, but we had to pay for the code, not to mention the "support"! Also, I might add that I got the impression that Wind River was pretty at ease with their monopoly on the embedded market that they didn't progress as much as they can/should. They seemed stuck in there ways of doing things, being a monopoly, and unless you were a GM, or maybe another department of LM, you really didn't get much out of them.
Sorry for the rant, and a little disclosure: I work for TimeSys.
Steven Rostedt
-- Nevermind
Woody is not yet released.
:)
:) It's one, or the other.
:)
Don't install Woody.
Install Potato. Or know what you're doing
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You were installing the equivalent of an early Red Hat beta release
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