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Behind The Coolest Gadgets - Linux or Windows?
An anonymous reader submits "Sister sites LinuxDevices and WindowsForDevices have kicked off what they're calling the Great Embedded Device Smack-Down, to see whether Linux or Windows Embedded powers the best and coolest devices. The Smackdown highlights more than 350 gadgets in nine categories, along with some entertaining "pre-game commentary" featuring the latest market share figures for the two OSes and a whacky clipart image of Stone Cold Bill Gates taking on The Tux."
My Linux popcorn maker maximizes the popped to unpopped kernel ratio. Far superior to my older Windows model.
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it seems like this is all in good fun...
it's nice to see good-natured rivalry based on merits rather than name-calling and finger pointing.
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
Our old TS models are great, but the new ACS are even better. Darn easy to use, and rock solid.
They run Linux, BTW...
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
In a recent study, 100% of all robots that reported chose Linux.
The table of how many devices of which type run which OS seems to only list which OS devices ship with. Linux has been ported to many Windows devices, so you cna flash them to Linux. While windows should work with many of the linux devices, I think it isn't trivial to buy a license to put it on your device that shipped with Linux & to then flash it to run windows.
If Microsoft wins the embedded device war, we can look forward to the following things:
1) Self driving cars which when infested w/ the Sassar2030 worm will all drive us off a cliff
2) All your personal information stored in a handheld device for your convience... and the convience of the 200+ Spyware programs that are automatically installed as you checkout at walmart
3) We will finally reach Jupiter only to find out the computer is controlled by a very evil looking red eye "I'm sorry Dave, but you need to download security patches"
MacSense makes the "iPod for the home", in the form of their HomePod. It doesn't run MacOS; it runs Linux and Java (J9).
More info at GlooLabs.
The iPod's OS isn't MacOS. It isn't even made by Apple. They bought the OS and most of the hardware spec from PortalPlayer and then customized it to their liking.
Tivo runs Linux....nuff said.
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Not mac os, not linux, not windows.
Apple bought the iPod's operating system from Pixo, a small company, that meanwhile has been acquired by Sun (try www.pixo.com).
It seems to be a proprietary OS.
Some information: http://www.fact-index.com/p/pi/pixo.html
I don't need a signature.
It runs Linux and it's miles better (pun intended) than the Windows CE counterpart Tomtom Navigator 3 which has occasional glitches.
If only it could run *BSD... ;-)
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My favorite embedded device has always been the Windows CE gas station pumps. Because something like pumping gas, ordering Big Macs, and asking for directions all at the same time was just too vital a service for people not to utilize.
Well, I haven't read the article yet (and by the looks of things I won't be doing it either), but offhand the only thing that I have to say is that I've never seen a Pocket PC that can stack up to the Zaurus line of handhelds made by Sharp, on either the coolness factor or the gadget factor.
It will be interesting seeing how they weighed the Pocket PC PDAs against the Linux ones, and how the fact that a number of iPaqs can be ran with either PPC or some kind of Linux.
IIRC, Wind River had a picture on their homepage of one of the previous Mars projects with a blurb saying that it ran VxWorks
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
Looking at the direction mobile phones are moving, I think it's a pretty good possibility that the the PDA, handhelds and Audio/Video Devices of the future will essentially be mobiles phones with these features.
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Adding up the counts in those categories we have
Linux : 38+17+36 = 91
Windows: 74+24+8 = 106
If you add in the "other" category, you have
Linux : 91+38=134
Windows:106+22=128
Either way, it's really close, except for one thing - the future trend and the contributions made back to the OSS community as a result of the devices that use Linux.
The thing is, as more of these devices are released, more code and/or documentation and bugfixes will be released by companies back to the OSS community because they will be using many OSS tools in the development of these products, improving them if necessary in the process and finally releasing some of the improvements to the OSS community.
This will make it easier for more companies to re-use OSS tools and software and we have a potential cascade effect that could create a very wide development base for embedded Linux devices.
On the windows side, the situation is not the same - companies usually don't release their any portion of their code into a "public pool" for use by the community.
This essentially means, that while the numbers are an even split now, it looks like the Linux numbers will grow faster than the Windows numbers.
Now, also remember that with the devices comes whatever the devices are connected to - namely PCs, Macs and the like. Therefore, at the very minimum, this could lead to a much better awareness of the Linux OS. What follows awareness is usually curiosity - and since Linux is a quality product, curiosity can only be a good thing.
Therefore, I'd just say that although the numbers are an even split now, they actually represent the success of Linux in the embedded devices market and given time, this will seep into the desktop and that will be a good thing. Competition always is.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
We've rounded up 150 of the COOLEST Linux devices from all over the far east! (And...uh..the 1 or 2 available in the U.S.)
But if a windows worm causes my car to kill me, I want it to be MyDoom. No offense, but if I'm going to die a horrible screaming death, I think it should at least be ironic.
Iffy, sure, but not unreasonable to include iPaqs under both categories as a 'Windows' and 'Linux' device.
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien