Device Hackers Do It With Linux

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com has published the results of its annual Embedded Linux Market Survey probing developer preferences and industry trends. Over the last four years, the survey has become an important resource for industry analysts and decision makers. Among the revelations: the embedded Linux tools and OS provider market is wide open, with no single dominant vendor; developers care most about Cost/Freeness; ARM is overtaking x86 in embedded systems; developers prefer support fees to runtime license models; and, Linux dwarves all other embedded operating systems, projected for use in half of all embedded projects during the next two years."

Comments

you don't say

[xenocide2]

Linux is looking up? Consider the sample source for a minute. A survey on linuxdevices. Of course there will be a solid linux representation. I'd expect to hear great things about the market trends of QNX based on a survey from QNXZone, too.

Re:you don't say

[El]

True, this is not a scientific survey. However, my personal experience tells me Linux is being considered for about half of all new devices. Look at the economics. A wireless access point is now about a $50 device. How much sense does it make to pay a $25 license fee for the OS for every one of these? You simply can't do that and still remain competitive. Arguably, you can't pay ANY per-unit license fees now and still remain competive with companies that are paying only development costs -- at least for any devices selling in high volumes.

What does embedded mean these days?

[ClosedSource]

An embedded system used to mean a system in which software didn't run from RAM, was severly resource limited, and in many cases, had to run with predicatable timing. It was also limited to solving a specific problem. In those systems, porting a conventional OS like Unix or Windows was totally out of the question.

The current definition seems to be a general purpose computing device that is no larger than a PC. Given this new definition, it's no surprise that Linux is dominant since it is free (as in beer) and backward compatibilty with Windows is not an issue.

Still in those projects where embedded really means something, I don't think Linux, Windows CE or any other standard OS can cut it.

Re:PC components

[hankaholic]

Opening specifications isn't about support costs, it's about fear. Deciding to stop distributing the same exact documentation which they used to provide quite happily wasn't a move to cut support costs.

Manufacturers are afraid that when their "trade secrets" get out, competing suppliers will destroy them. However, there have been manufacturers marketing MIPS cores for years, yet many still opt for the original in their designs. Intel seems to be doing fairly well despite having documented their instruction sets for decades.

It's about shipping a product which is well-manufactured enough that competition isn't so worrisome. Matrox uses quality RAMDACs, so their cards have beautiful output. Even if someone were to sell a cheap knock-off clone, Matrox still owns the trademarks, and nobody can steal their reputation for producing cards with quality output.

It's about fear of competition, and refusing to disclose anything beyond the bare minimum is nothing but an attempt to stifle it.