Slashdot Mirror
Consumer Electronics Industry: Linux is the Future
securitas writes "The New York Times is carrying a Reuters story about Linux as the software of choice for consumer electronics. At the world's largest consumer electronics show, the IFA trade fair 'the first Linux products are already on show and more will come soon, companies said.' The reason? Linux is freely available, widely embraced and profit margins in the consumer electronics business are one or two percent at best. The math is simple. The industry push comes from the members of the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), that includes Sony, Philips, Matsushita/Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, NEC, IBM, LG, Thomson/RCA and
Toshiba. The CELF was previously discussed on Slashdot. Mirrors at Silicon.com and CNet News."
GO LINUX!
And it feels soooo good.
GooooOOOoooOOO linux?
fp or no? 20 seconds is lamAr!
a/s/l here. Sorry, adding domain tags to your s
first? probably not by now
Linux Set to Break Through in Consumer Electronics
Thu August 28, 2003 12:21 PM ET
By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent
BERLIN (Reuters) - Linux, the fast growing and freely available operating system, is set to be the software of choice for future televisions, set top boxes and DVD recorders, consumer electronics executives and specialists said Thursday.
Linux, currently a software system mostly used to power big servers and personal computers, is also now emerging as a small set of computing code to drive devices like mobile phones, remote controls and smart vibrators.
"The consumer electronics industry has chosen the Linux platform in large numbers. For us, Linux has several advantages," said Gerard Kleisterlee, Chief Executive at Philips Electronics, Europe's biggest and the world's No. 3 consumer electronics maker.
Low cost and the freedom to tweak the software are reasons why eight of the world's largest consumer electronics makers, including the numbers one and two Sony Corp and Matsushita of Japan, have set up an alliance to develop and promote Linux for consumer electronics products, last month.
Linux should also create a common standard to connect products from different manufacturers which currently build various proprietary systems into their devices.
At the sector's largest trade fair IFA in Berlin, the first Linux products are already on show and more will cum soon, companies said.
Linux's key advantage over other operating systems is that the core software is freely available and widely embraced. In the cut-throat electronics business where profit margins are one or two percent at the best of times, every saving is welcome.
"The consumer electronics makers sell millions of devices while their profit margins are extremely slim. If they have don't have to pay royalties it works directly through to their bottom line," Martin Fink, head of Linux activities at Hewlett-Packard, told Reuters in an interview.
TINY LINUX
Linux's core software, also known as kernel, which drives the chips and other basic functions of a device, can be as small as one Megabyte if embedded in a consumer electronics product, Fink added. A single high quality digital picture or one minute of MP3 music can be stored on one Megabyte of memory.
U.S. electronics maker Motorola has launched a Linux mobile phone for the Chinese market, while Philips has a remote control running on Linux for all the electronic devices in a home.
The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) is working to speed up the start-up time of devices and reduce power demands.
Next target is the 164 million units a year global television set market, as well as the millions of set top boxes and DVD recorders. These devices need more powerful chips and versatile software like Linux to connect easily to other devices in the home and the Web. U.S.-based Microsoft has a slimmed-down version of Windows for networked home electronics.
Consumers are embracing home networks to hook up their computers with always-on, fast Internet. Consumer electronics makers believe that next they will want to play and display music, pictures and films from the Internet and their PC on TVs and HiFi sets, which is why they make them more powerful.
Worldwide, over twenty million consumers have a home network this year, a number that will double within two years and treble within four, said Juergen Thiel, a Western European sales manager at U.S. chip maker Intel. Intel said it would partner with Sony to develop these home networks.
Sony, Philips and Samsung Electronics from South Korea all showed home network boxes that will transfer digital content from PCs and the Web to consumer electronics devices.
"Broadband Internet will create completely new opportunities. In Germany alone the number of broadband DSL subscribers will surpass four million this year," says Leopold Bonengl, head of Sony Germany. Some 12 percent of all European households
Oh, I'm a Republican
I got a small schling
I like to bomb niggahs
and make a lot o' bling
I got a bunch o' friends
in high up places
They helps me get dem
government graces.
You think I'm smart
I just know who's who
I couldn't run a fruit stand
without the red white & blue
I fancy myself
A brilliant tactician
But neither me nor m'buddies
Could even pass basic trainin'
See, I'm above all that
A fightin' and shootin'
I just say "Sic em!"
Then run the other direction
Don't need no history
Don't need no schoolin'
I got my ideology
To keep me a shootin'
Liberals! Faggots!
Commies and queers!
Socialist hippies
Full o' pussy tears!
I'll drop some crap
about Jesus the Christ
You'll buy it all
and vote for me twice
'Fact, Jesus is comin'!
Real soon, now!
So we gotta prop up Israel
That ol' sacred cow
Propaganda's m'friend
But I calls it "fact"
Even though I don't read
'Cept for Chick tracts
Facts? No! Don't need em here!
We're conservatives! We work on FEAR!
Don't like what we say?
Well FUCK YOU, bud!
We'll shove it down yer throat
and tell ya it's good!
Linux Set to Break Through in Consumer Electronics
Thu August 28, 2003 12:21 PM ET
By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent
BERLIN (Reuters) - Linux, the fast growing and freely available operating system, is set to be the software of choice for future televisions, set top boxes and DVD recorders, consumer electronics executives and specialists said Thursday.
Linux, currently a software system mostly used to power big servers and personal computers, is also now emerging as a small set of computing code to drive devices like mobile phones, remote controls and TVs.
"The consumer electronics industry has chosen the Linux platform in large numbers. For us, Linux has several advantages," said Gerard Kleisterlee, Chief Executive at Philips Electronics, Europe's biggest and the world's No. 3 consumer electronics maker.
Low cost and the freedom to tweak the software are reasons why eight of the world's largest consumer electronics makers, including the numbers one and two Sony Corp and Matsushita of Japan, have set up an alliance to develop and promote Linux for consumer electronics products, last month.
Linux should also create a common standard to connect products from different manufacturers which currently build various proprietary systems into their devices.
At the sector's largest trade fair IFA in Berlin, the first Linux products are already on show and more will come soon, companies said.
Linux's key advantage over other operating systems is that the core software is freely available and widely embraced. In the cut-throat electronics business where profit margins are one or two percent at the best of times, every saving is welcome.
"The consumer electronics makers sell millions of devices while their profit margins are extremely slim. If they have don't have to pay royalties it works directly through to their bottom line," Martin Fink, head of Linux activities at Hewlett-Packard, told Reuters in an interview.
TINY LINUX
Linux's core software, also known as kernel, which drives the chips and other basic functions of a device, can be as small as one Megabyte if embedded in a consumer electronics product, Fink added. A single high quality digital picture or one minute of MP3 music can be stored on one Megabyte of memory.
U.S. electronics maker Motorola has launched a Linux mobile phone for the Chinese market, while Philips has a remote control running on Linux for all the electronic devices in a home.
The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) is working to speed up the start-up time of devices and reduce power demands.
Next target is the 164 million units a year global television set market, as well as the millions of set top boxes and DVD recorders. These devices need more powerful chips and versatile software like Linux to connect easily to other devices in the home and the Web. U.S.-based Microsoft has a slimmed-down version of Windows for networked home electronics.
Consumers are embracing home networks to hook up their computers with always-on, fast Internet. Consumer electronics makers believe that next they will want to play and display music, pictures and films from the Internet and their PC on TVs and HiFi sets, which is why they make them more powerful.
Worldwide, over twenty million consumers have a home network this year, a number that will double within two years and treble within four, said Juergen Thiel, a Western European sales manager at U.S. chip maker Intel. Intel said it would partner with Sony to develop these home networks.
Sony, Philips and Samsung Electronics from South Korea all showed home network boxes that will transfer digital content from PCs and the Web to consumer electronics devices.
"Broadband Internet will create completely new opportunities. In Germany alone the number of broadband DSL subscribers will surpass four million this year," says Leopold Bonengl, head of Sony Germany. Some 12 percent of all European households currently h
Who wants to pay 699 to SCO for a intarweb toaster?
Actually, Embedded Linux is the present! I am this very minute putting the finishing touches on embedded Linux code shipping in a projector! Sorry, WindRiver -- guess you aren't the Micro$oft of the embedded world after all!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
GO GNU/LINUX!
I just hope all these corporation continue to respect GPL and not find a way to tear Linux apart. Just a little caution needed after what happened to UNIX.
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
Somehow I think slashdot readers are smart enough to find Sony, Philips, Matsushita, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, NEC, IBM, LG, Thomson, RCA, or Toshiba websites without the useless plethora of links.
GO LINUS!
YOU FAIL IT!? probably by now.
You don't have to subscribe. There's a direct link to the story on the reuters.com.
Linux is freely available... The math is simple.
SCO-math aside...
Good to hear, though. I've been happy with my little Linux-based MP3 player for years now.
Here is the major reason that it is plausable that M$ is behind $CO and the all the FUD about Linux. M$ wants in on this market in a VERY big way, but is losing the battle!
If everything in my home will eventually be computerized, I'd want something open source based, just to guard against snooping, as if not having my fridge give me a blue screen of death wasn't reason enough.
I'd guess maybe the cookie jar won't be the only thing with cookies in it though.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Won't all computers end up being embedded devices? I mean really think about it. Why would you load the OS on to a hard drive when you could easly put it on a hardware level and put all the programs on the disk. Makes a lot of sense because you save so much disk space, and at the same time, the OS is more secured against accidental deletion and file corrupting viruses.
So I treat this as the ultimate victory for Linux. The next generation of computers is wireless and mobile and trying to keep everything secure. Firmware Operating Systems is the solution; hail the next coming of a great era, the wireless/linux revolution!
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
FAIL IT! or no? YOUR FAILURE is lamAr!
I mean sure devices like Tivo which can download patches from the server once a week may not really care, but what about something that's stuck with whatever OS it leaves the factory with...
Is linux really "there" yet?
Ñ'
Does that mean DeCSS is legal now?
Big Brother Bush is doubleplus ungood.
Didn't I think this several years ago? By golly I think I did, and I doubt I'm alone. And just because its printed does not mean its true, especially in technological predictions. Truman lost remember, and so did Gore... Wait a minute...
Ignorance kills, complacency kills, hatred kills, but usually not the ones guilty of them.
Or you could click on the Reuters link instead of the NYTimes one.
I especially liked "smart vibrator" part. Like this one?
Truly deserving of a few mod points!
Consumer Electronics Industry: Linux is the Future
No shit..... I came to this conclusion 10 years ago.....
d.
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az
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taco sucks
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goat
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tacosucks wjeoifjewiojfowjfoijweoijfoiwjeofjiewjfoiewjfoiew
Who is designing the sticker ?
Linux runs on smart vibrators?
That's too much information for me...
The original reads "Linux, currently a software system mostly used to power big servers and personal computers, is also now emerging as a small set of computing code to drive devices like mobile phones, remote controls and TVs." this Arrrrchive reads "Linux, currently a software system mostly used to power big servers and personal computers, is also now emerging as a small set of computing code to drive devices like mobile phones, remote controls and smart vibrators." and undoubtedly contains more idiocy. Please, don't subscribe to trolls.... vote them down with your modpoints, for gods sake.
...smart vibrators.
I highly doubt that Linux runs on smart vibrators.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
Actually I've thought of starting a business using SBC's (Single Board Computers) and Embedded Linux to make what Donald Norman title "The Invisible Computer." That would be basicaly Linux Appliances for the SOHO market.
Of course as anyone can see the market appears to be saturated, from Linksys on down.
Or I could do customized Knoppix distributions (OpenGroupware comes to mind).
So any input from the "/." crowd is welcome.
Viable? Crazy?
Yes, that is what a read on first glance ;-) It made me take a double-take!
includes Sony, Philips, Matsushita/Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, NEC, IBM, LG, Thomson/RCA and Toshiba.
What I find interesting is that many of these companies are selling consumer electronics that use OTHER OSes than Linux. So, what exactly does this context mean when they call Linux "the operating system of choice" ?
The parent is a filthy troll.
Although if it did, that would be the sniz night!
sorry to reply to my own post
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
I'm not so sure, I think that if you were in the business of marketting smart vibrators, why not use embedded Linux? Knobbix anyone?
Dumb comments post MICHAEL!!!!
Can't these people stop worrying about stuff and start coding?
Since the Reuters link does not require a subscription, the NYT subscription is irrelevant, so parent post is unnecessary.
I'm assuming Reuters can take a slashdot-induced load, of course.
Seems appropriate to revive this classic at this time:
Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, a king summoned two of his advisors for a test. He showed them both a shiny metal box with two slots in the top, a control knob, and a lever. "What do you think this is?"
One advisor, an engineer, answered first. "It is a toaster," he said. The king asked, "How would you design an embedded computer for it?" The engineer replied, "Using a four-bit microcontroller, I would write a simple program that reads the darkness knob and quantizes its position to one of 16 shades of darkness, from snow white to coal black. The program would use that darkness level as the index to a 16-element table of initial timer values. Then it would turn on the heating elements and start the timer with the initial value selected from the table. At the end of the time delay, it would turn off the heat and pop up the toast. Come back next week, and I'll show you a working prototype."
The second advisor, a computer scientist, immediately recognized the danger of such short-sighted thinking. He said, "Toasters don't just turn bread into toast, they are also used to warm frozen waffles. What you see before you is really a breakfast food cooker. As the subjects of your kingdom become more sophisticated, they will demand more capabilities. They will need a breakfast food cooker that can also cook sausage, fry bacon, and make scrambled eggs. A toaster that only makes toast will soon be obsolete. If we don't look to the future, we will have to completely redesign the toaster in just a few years.
"With this in mind, we can formulate a more intelligent solution to the problem. First, create a class of breakfast foods. Specialize this class into subclasses: grains, pork, and poultry. The specialization process should be repeated with grains divided into toast, muffins, pancakes, and waffles; pork divided into sausage, links, and bacon; and poultry divided into scrambled eggs, hard- boiled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs, and various omelet classes.
"The ham and cheese omelet class is worth special attention because it must inherit characteristics from the pork, dairy, and poultry classes. Thus, we see that the problem cannot be properly solved without multiple inheritance. At run time, the program must create the proper object and send a message to the object that says, 'Cook yourself.' The semantics of this message depend, of course, on the kind of object, so they have a different meaning to a piece of toast than to scrambled eggs.
"Reviewing the process so far, we see that the analysis phase has revealed that the primary requirement is to cook any kind of breakfast food. In the design phase, we have discovered some derived requirements. Specifically, we need an object-oriented language with multiple inheritance. Of course, users don't want the eggs to get cold while the bacon is frying, so concurrent processing is required, too.
"We must not forget the user interface. The lever that lowers the food lacks versatility, and the darkness knob is confusing. Users won't buy the product unless it has a user-friendly, graphical interface. When the breakfast cooker is plugged in, users should see a cowboy boot on the screen. Users click on it, and the message 'Booting UNIX v.8.3' appears on the screen. (UNIX 8.3 should be out by the time the product gets to the market.) Users can pull down a menu and click on the foods they want to cook.
"Having made the wise decision of specifying the software first in the design phase, all that remains is to pick an adequate hardware platform for the implementation phase. An Intel Pentium with 16MB of memory, a 300MB hard disk, and a SVGA monitor should be sufficient. If you select a multitasking, object oriented language that supports multiple inheritance and has a built-in GUI, writing the program will be a snap. (Imagine the difficulty we would have had if we had foolishly allowed a hardware-first design strategy to lock us into a four-bit microcontroller!)."
The king wisely had the computer scientist beheaded, and they all lived happily ever after.
I love the black helmet!
Because the consumer doesn't even know the damn things are running Linux. The manufacturers are doing a great job of taking Linux and producing custom interfaces (when needed) for their products so the average user doesn't even know they're running Linux. Maybe the desktop Linux folks should take notice...
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
I have a DVB-S (digital satellite TV) receiver that runs Linux, and I must say it is a very nice box for the computer hobbyist, and probably still quite usable for the normal consumer.
Out of the box one can just use it as a receiver, but once you connect it to your LAN (ethernet) you can browse its contents using SMB (it runs SAMBA) or a web browser. You can edit its configuration files using "vi" over telnet, you can NFS-mount a disk on another system and record movies on it, plug in a USB memory key and backup your configuration, etc etc.
Not all are things that a consumer would want to do, but very nice to have.
I presume not all Linux-based consumer electronics boxes will be as open as this one, though.
What "we" have to avoid, I think, is to criticize manfacturers that use Linux and do not at the same time make the box open to access like described above. Especially bad is to "hack" into Linux-based devices beyond what one can be reasonably expected to do with something you own, and to blackmail manufacturers into releasing information and source code of proprietary parts.
Behaviour like that could quickly make the big manufacturers a lot less enthousiastic about using Linux.
Umm yes:
At the sector's largest trade fair IFA in Berlin, the first Linux products are already on show and more will cum soon, companies said.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
So if you run Linux on a single processor machine (as is true of many non-webserver deployments) SCO really has no case? I would be interested to see if they could uphold a case against a mass deployment on single processor systems :-\
here
New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
Your kung fu is strong MonkeySoft, but our bullets are free.
Did you put in the sub-conscious pr0n-related messages yourself, or were they part of the article:
example:
1. (as already mentioned): "smart Vibrator"
2. "more will cum soon"
Proper spelling is 'come' - 'cum' means something else - more specificaly it means "to squirt the love juice over a loved one"
I didn't read the original article, so I don't know.
In any case it made the article even more interesting!
how many more hyperlinks could you put in the article summary? maybe next time you should link all words over three letters to their dictionary.com definitions!
Follow some of these links for variety of options.
Heres a guy who is bitter about not getting any karma.
I highly doubt that Linux runs on smart vibrators.
Isn't that as close as most geeks will get?
The bottom line is that it's always the bottom line with such applications. Companies don't give a flying fig about free as in speech, but free as in beer gets their attention every time.
...the CHILDREN are our future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way.
This Linux thing is just a fad.
no
I'm sure I've seen this article many many times over the past several years. Linux zealots are starting to sound like Red Sox fans.
Did anyone else notice this (emphasis added)? ...the first Linux products are already on show and more will cum soon...
If people think the techno world is boring, they should take another look. Some of this stuff really does make "Dilbert" look better than real life.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Disquieting, obviously. But what isn't?
or any head
Im concerned with major corporations developing it, we're gonna get back to the point where one program will only run on such and such version...and the fact that companies might try to sell it if they could...
http://www.antioffline.com/slashdot.html
That's the new way of doing things.
I am so glad the poster helpfully pointed out the URL for IBM Corp.
"Linux, currently a software system mostly used to power big servers and personal computers, is also now emerging as a small set of computing code to drive devices like mobile phones, remote controls and smart vibrators."
And who said that Women didn't like Eunuchs?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
gnaa reccomends anuses cheeses
Janet said: "I don't like a man with too many muscles." and Frank'n'Furter said "I didn't make him for YOU!"
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
i just got finished explaining to a non-techie friend how microsoft's long-term prospects on the back-end look dim. i also explained how microsoft's desktop presence is also threatened. i then went on to speculate that the future for microsoft might be under-the-hood of consumer electronics devices including disposable PCs (Dell, HP, etc.).
the future doesn't look bright for microsoft's OS business.
the beauty they possess inside
Are they talking about SCO/Linux?
AR
Who's writing the catchy jingle?
:)
Anyway I prefer "Penguin Inside"
I just hope all these corporation continue to respect GPL and not find a way to tear Linux apart.
If companies wanted to "tear Linux apart", why would they get together in the CELF? The main point of using Linux is to get a market in which programmers and tools can be shared among many projects and companies. If companies wanted their own proprietary embedded operating systems, they wouldn't have to take Linux and hack it up, they could just keep using whatever they are already using.
If some companies end up making proprietary versions of Linux for their own use, we'd still be better off than we are now, since their systems would still be basically Linux and POSIX-based. That at least means they are contributing to the pool of Linux and POSIX programmers. It also means that any externally visible interfaces, file formats, and protocols are more likely to be open and interoperable.
Just a little caution needed after what happened to UNIX.
What killed commercial UNIX was high cost, poor marketing, high hardware requirements, and Microsoft's sneak-attack from the low end. None of those apply to Linux.
Yep, Linux is great on my laptop and at work, but why is it so great for embedded systems?
I assume that embedded systems don't need the Unix-like environment, and just run a single application. And how much of the Linux kernel do they actually use? Loadable device drivers are out, SMP is out, networking is probably out for a lot of them, filesystems may not be needed...
So what does an embedded Linux kernel look like? How does embedded Linux compare to things like, say, eCos (Red Hat's open source realtime embedded OS).
My bicyles
The only reason they are perfering linux is beacuse they are using free software. Your and mine hard work, they use it for free and what do they give back? nada. Just overpriced devices that are cool for a few weeks and totaly useless..
It's been that for 30 years.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Hehe. Sounds like X10 on steroids. But you did give me the idea of an inexpensive energy control computer. Slightly smarter X10 modules, coupled with an SBC controllable via a browser. Especially relevant with the recent electrical blackout.
But I do know that when creating a business, one first of all needs a demand to fulfill (what do people really want, or need?). Two one needs to fill a niche that the big boys aren't filling (How many MP3, TIVO, Cable boxes does one need?). Everything after that point is the typical stuff that one has to deal with in any business.e.g. Financing, marketing, distribution, labour, etc.
I'm glad that this troll seems to have survived the vicious modding regime currently in place.
Linux sucks. Why the hell would I want my TV to run it, so I can edit a text file when I want to change my channel? No thanks! I challenge any hardcore Linux user to try out my G5 (when I get it) for an hour. If he or she does not leave my desk with drool spewing from his or her mouth I will eat the G5. The combination of the faster CPU ever put into a desktop computer along with the best OS ever made makes Apple products second to nothing. Leave the hell that is Linux and Windows for a better world, think different, think Apple.
I was in my local photo shop today, collecting some films. Some people wanted to have prints of their digital photos. "No problem" says the photo guy, we just burn those pics from the smartcard onto a CD and send that in to the Lab.
He fires up the burner - a standalone device with a reader for every digital cam storage medium and a built-in burner and... yes.. its a linux boot sequence and the touch-screen app ran on X. This thing needs drivers for a lot of exotic stuff and was up within 15 seconds.
Quite impressive.
-- Put crudely, the world is an extremely large problem instance. (Russel/Norvig Artificial Intelligence)
I'm just wondering why FreeBSD is not used more for electronics. It's as small and fast as Linux and seems to have less copyright issues. I know that has been and is used in embedded devices. I'm just wondering what Linux's advantage over it is.
Thanks,
Strater
strater.ca
To make it easier!
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
People have been making that comment for 10 years, now. When is it going to happen exactly? Tomorrow? 10 years from now? 50? But when it DOES happen you'll be yelling "I told you so!".
More useless gum flapping. Given a long enough span of time, all predictions will come true...
IF there code isn't part of the kernel, and is only "user space" software, who cares? They can create whatever software they want on top of a very minumal kernel and as long as they don't use GPL software to build from, they don't have to release squat.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
how we used to be
This article claims the profit margins for consumer electronics manufacturers is 1-2%. But I've also frequently heard that the total markup-inflated price of CE is typically about 10x the manufacturing cost. So, if a designer wants to sell a stereo receiver that'll cost $500 in the store, the total cost of parts and labor to build it needs to be about $50. So my question, for anyone who may be knowledgeable in this area, is who are the other players in this mark-up game and how does the breakdown look. Obviously the CE manufacturers have large overhead, but certainly this cannot be the whole picture.
I find it especially ironic that an electronics hobbiest such as myself can often build better quality "CE" equipment at lower cost in my basement and using parts purchased in small (non-bulk priced) quantities. Granted, I count the time investment as hobby and education, but shouldn't the big players be able to do a better job with their massive economies of scale?
I'm so embarrased that I have to post this as AC, but as soon as I read the title this (awful) song popped into my head. Sigh. I'm sorry, in advance,.
Sung to the tune of "The Greatest Love Of All", with apologies to Whitney and Bobby's crack dealer.
I believe that Linux is our future
Patch it well and let them re-compile
Show them all the new stuff it includes inside
Give them a sense of pride
when they get it to compile
Let the Windows crashes remind us how we used to be
Now that everybody's searching for a distro
People need someone to ask "HowTo?"
I never found any one to fulfill my needs
Wrong GUI, wrong lib versions, or worse
So I learned to depend on rolling my own
Chorus:
I decided long ago, never to walk in Microsoft's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my open source
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Burned onto that CD
The greatest love of all
Aint easy to achieve
Learning to run Linux
It is the greatest love of all
I believe that Linux is our future
Patch it well and let them re-compile
Show them all the new stuff it includes inside
Give them a sense of pride
when they get it to compile
Let the Windows crashes remind us how we used to be
Chorus
And if by chance, that special app
That you've been dreaming of
fails 'cause of dependency crap
Find your strength in Knoppix
Now SCO owns my fridge, the tv, the washing machine...etc.
Doesnt it make you shiver to have McBride come in and take your slushie blender from your hands?
NO SIG
... and through the nasty little kneebiters are the barbie!
Children. It's what's for dinner!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I'm a physician at a large academic hospital. The healthcare area is one that I think Linux is ideally suited for. Few have attempted it and yet, if you look at the potential benefits, it's almost a no-brainer:
- A large hospital will have hundreds if not thousands of computer terminals. Linux could significantly reduce hospital overhead costs, which nowadays is being given a high priority.
- Linux doesn't currently have the virus/worm problem that Windows has. This is majorly problematic for Windows in the healthcare industry where almost any informatics downtime is unacceptable. Healthcare informatics is rapidly turning into a mission-critical enterprise as more and more hospitals depend on their computer systems to deliver information.
- There's no reason healthcare workers couldn't use the StarOffice/OpenOffice Suites for applications. Most users' needs are pretty basic and documents regarding patients are supposed to be held strictly confidential as well.
- Which brings me to the one downside. Few medical informatics applications are written for Linux. Those that have been are open-source and are developed very slowly since very few programmers out there know anything about (or care to know anything about) healthcare informatics application requirements.
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
If they are working with miniscule profits imagine what the affect would be to pay the SCO blood money for the embedded OS license.
You're right, it is awful.
Will code a sig generator for food
We have a "embedded" product whichs is really just an old 500 mghz pc with custom hardware. Right now, its just running romdos. We considered switching it over to linux, but the 3rd party libraries would need to be replaced and a great deal of code rewritten. If we make a completely new version of the product ( from scratch) we would definitly choose linux.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
It must be a slow day on slashdot.
Support Israeli punk bands. Man Alive.
He needs to amend the license to make it less restrictive, a Linus Public License of sorts, and to get away from RMS' ranting BS. As it is, RMS seems to think Linux is his baby and only came into being due to him. Linus needs to remind him that it isn't.
1) Ease of installation and upkeep. Without a dominating distribution, or a standard framework, Windows-like ease of installation will never exist. This is paramount, even for a "Linux-restore disk" option as like on current MS-Dell machines
2) Apps. There has to be games and standard apps available as there is for Windows, and have them in binary format. Compiling should only be an option for those who have nothing better to do, or who don't have significant others (most current Linux users).
Don't forget the power-over-ethernet (IEEE 802.3af), so all I have to do is run Cat5 to it... how many existing SBCs support POE?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
IBM 405LP (Low Power) We are about to see on of the biggest breakthoughs in Linux embedded devices. Recently Motorola announced the AC970 Linux based phone in Asia. Currently the Windows CE pda and phones have a big power problem. They can only last about 3 hours. IBM has some big alliances in the cell phone chip market. It would make a lot of sense for IBM to incorporate their chip tecnology for cell phones. I think next year we are going to start seeing pda's based upon the 405lp. It would not be improbable for IBM to do a limited production run of let's say 5000 of 405lp and give them to their employees and have them show the pdas to their customrers.
Eat my penis slashdot. Eat it up.
"how many existing SBCs support POE?"
Not many
Apple: Linux is just Unix, which what OSX is.
Lindows: We sell free Linux, for $39.99!
Linus: I invented Linux!
RMS: I invented Linux! And Linus Torvalds!
Al Gore: I invented Linux! And the Internet!
Al Sharpton: Linux robs jobs from Black coders!
India: Linux saves you money, if you hire us!
US ITers: Linux makes us lose jobs!
O.J. Simpson: You crackers are funny!
"The biggest drawback for linux on embedded systems is the fact that the embedded system will need some kind of chip that does memory management. Otherwise the kernel is useless. "
You should have read the link provided in the previous conversation.
FreeMED is actually being used in some applications---mostly small physician practices, but some mid-sized hospitals as well. That's a development copy right now, but you can mail the maintainer (unobfuscate email to use) for info about the stable release.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca