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Linux Now Top Choice Of Embedded Developers

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at LinuxDevices.com, the latest market research data from Venture Development Corp. shows that Linux is now firmly in first place as the OS of choice for smart gadgets and embedded systems. VDC's latest data indicates that Linux now accounts for 15.5% of embedded projects, beating out Microsoft's WinCE (6%) and XPe (5%), and Wind River's VxWorks (10.3%)."

6 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. That TRON is not an OS? by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Informative
    Rather TRON is the blueprint/design/guide/specs for an OS. Perhaps it is like the OS Unix. No such thing and if you are intrested in nothing showing Unix as having a huge market share then you split it up.

    Tron is probably the "other" and "no formal os".

    Of course tron is also mostly used in japan, if they didn't count japan then that would also explain it.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  2. Re:Are mobile phones not embedded devices? by jyristys · · Score: 2, Informative
    There may be 50 seperate symbian projects stemming from Nokia alone, but that wouldn't begin to dent the market share that Linux is forming.
    Oh? That Linux embedded device market share must be really huge if the biggest mobile phone manufacturer with it's licensees and competitors (also using Symbian OS) can't even make a dent.

    Symbian was designed for mobile phones, and basically little else.
    No. http://www.metalgrass.com/symbianinvestor/SymbHist .html
  3. Re:the GPL is a mine field. by 10101001+10101001 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I work at a manufacturing company...

    Okay, that's an interesting starting point.

    There are as yet unresolved issues with the use of binary software with GPL software in general and linux specifically, despite linus' assurances that userspace code doesn't require GPL license compatibility and that he won't enforce that section of the GPL.

    What was the link supposed to show again? Modules aren't userland programs. Modules (at least with 2.6.x) have to compile against the kernel source, and that's *clearly* covered under the GPL. The only real question then is whether such use of the kernel code is fair use. Whatever the outcome of that, userland is a wholly separate issue where no linking takes place (headers aren't even needed; you can just use a syscall chart and make your own if you're that paranoid).

    What we found, is that the GPL, LGPL and other FSF licenses are very problematic when dealing with the control of code(proprietry or otherwise).

    That's the whole point, actually. The GPL is designed specifically to remove control from everyone through copyright law.

    The GPL licensing terms are very strict and dangerous in terms of source code-ownership vs binary code-distribution and legal obligations.

    I'm not sure what your basis is for strictness, but the only restriction the GPL includes is if you use GPL code in your code that if/when you distribute said code as a binary, you provide one of 2 or 3 ways for someone to gain the source under the same terms you got the GPL source. Yes, this is a good deal more restrictive than say the BSD, but at the same time it's a lot *less* restrictive than preventing you from giving out binaries *or* source.

    As for "dangerous in terms of source code-ownership", it's not dangerous at all. You own your source code, but you don't have a right to distribute someone else's code except under their provisions. If you don't like it, don't use their code.

    We're left to the whims of copyright owners and their good word to decide what is considered a breach and what is 'tolerated'.

    You're describing the use of all external software. Look at how SCO is suing IBM over a contract dispute which they bought/inhereted through several generations of companies. If you're that worried about what external copyright owners might do, never use external code; then you just have to worry about being sued because someone external claims you used their code anyways.

    As we see more GPL software being used by companies with proprietry code, I think we'll see a nasty side of the GPL rear its head as enforcement starts to kick in from different areas.

    "Nasty side"? You mean copyright law? If copyright law didn't exist, there wouldn't be any "nasty side" nor "ownership" nor "enforcement" nor "licenses". Because there exists copyright and the first three are in place to only benefit the original author of a work and no one else, the GPL is designed to counteract all the negative effects of copyright with copyright, through bloody enforcement with lawsuits and all.

    It sounds like you're more interested in taking something which you don't own (GPLed works), using it as you please with other works (possibly stuff you licensed from someone else), and you're unhappy that the GPL conflicts with the latter when stuff like BSDed works don't. But, the GPL is all about making things non-proprietary, so no one can claim exclusionary control as fundamentally it's the exclusionary control that is what's causing all your/our problems in the first place.

    Linus and others in the "open source" group are pragmatic, though, and realize not everyone is going to change overnight. But, they also realize the best way to guarantee that the Linux kernel behaves well is to have as much information as possible; dumping in binary/closed modules is horribly insecure,

    --
    Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
  4. Re:Not nearly that bad by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 2, Informative

    The GPL talks not just about derivative works but also combined works, which is far more easily done. Linking two pieces of code together in such a way that removing one would break the other basically makes it a combined work.

  5. Re:the GPL is a mine field. by bhima · · Score: 3, Informative
    I work for a big pharma company, and we reviewed the GPL & BSD licenses, along with many of the points the parent brings up and concluded that software of both licenses is useful to us, the license is compatible with our business model, and it's very easy to not only stay in compliance with GPL & BSD but in most cases cheaper. Of course this is only for Embedded or Machine control projects we still us windows on the desktop.

    Anyway I had labeled the parent at best a Microsoft fan or at worst a troll and wasn't going to put the effort you did in refuting him. Bottom line both the GPL and BSD licenses have their use's and places and you can make money using both (and still comply with them), actually I think only the truly stupid or arrogant run afoul of either license.

    --
    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  6. Re:the GPL is a mine field. by AnwerB · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've had to struggle with this also, but after all is said and done, I'm moving our whole embedded platform to linux.

    This has had a few repercussion; namely, we're also doing away with the whole Windows client side of the application and replacing it with a web-app. It turns out that when you have a highly evolved embedded web server, scripting language, and database, an active client becomes unnecessary and can be replaced with a web browser.

    By the way, just in case anyone else is doing this, in the embedded space I've found that LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) can be successfully replaced with LBSL (Linux-BOA-SQLite-LUA).

    BOA is a little web server (less than 70KB). It uses the GPL license.

    SQLite is a very efficient SQL database (about 200KB if you replace math library functions with an inline function). It is public domain.

    LUA is a tiny (about 100-200KB, depending on modules compiled in) scripting language with a very elegant design. The math module can be rewritten to not use the math library. It uses the MIT license.

    Each of these pieces of software has a different licenses, with SQLite and LUA basically allowing you to do what you please. BOA improvements must be opened up, however you can add functionality through CGI-like modules, and that will not need to be opened.