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Linux In Robots, Windows in Handhelds
savuporo writes "Robots.net is reporting that Linux-based robots are far more common than Windows-based robotics. Especially various Asian robot builders are increasingly selecting Linux and other open-source software as a basis for robot products and research. Linux is also gaining ground in other embedded applications like PDAs and mobile phones." That said, prostoalex writes "50% of all the PDAs sold in 2003 had Palm OS, while Windows family accounted for 37.7% of PDA market. In 2004 Microsoft is the leader of handheld OS market with 43% market share, followed by Palm OS with 36.3%."
It seems to me that the robotics market is a growing one - more and more robots are going to be produced in the future. Linux has this growing market.
Windows has the shrinking market. Handhelds are on the way out, being pushed aside by smarter phones (running Linux or Symbian). Why have a phone and a handheld, when the phone will do both? So, the handheld market is shrinking, and that's the one Windows has.
Linux 1, Microsoft 0
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This might be a viewpoint that isn't shared by many, especially considering that it does everything that a PDA needs to do - then again a 5 year old Palm also did - but it has fallen behind, limited by the old architecture of PalmOS.
They really need to get version 6 out, the version that should be fully native on ARM hardware, using BeOS functionality and so on. They should concentrate on providing a wide range of easy to use software that looks good and performs well. Beat PocketPC where it is good.
The sad thing is that Palm Desktop is a good application for what it does, worth running even if you don't have a Palm!
Intelligent people are going to choose Linux more and more
The most interesting question is, if Windoze were free (or very marginally priced), just which OS would "intelligent" people choose?
50% of all the PDAs sold in 2003 had Palm OS, while Windows family accounted for 37.7% of PDA market.
What exactly are the other 12.3% running on?
In 2004 Microsoft is the leader of handheld OS market with 43% market share, followed by Palm OS with 36.3%."
Apparently whatever it was is loosing ground.
We need mission critical OS when we need to run mission critical robots like that that disarms bombs and get people from infected areas, imagine the people telling that the OS give us a BSOD and can't disarm the bomb.
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The iPod feature a sync functionality which makes it a read only handheld.
Aren't there more iPod than CE handhelds ?
This'd make the iPodOS the 1st handheld OS.
Has someone the figures ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
...when there is no race to win. Market share is a poor measurement of the penetration of technology into society. It may reflect sales and impress the suits and stockholders, but it has no real value. What does have value is complete freedom. This is why proprietary systems will fail unless some sort of corporate fascism is established. The United States is headed strongly in that direction with their government having less and less real power and being more of a puppet for the businesses in their country. I expect that the United States government will be nothing more than a figurehead to the corporate powers by the end of the Bush administration. The general public is already hugely unaware that they have options beyond what Microsoft and Apple offer them. ie. They are right where business wants them. In a few more decades the Unicted States will be a corporate feudal system with "democracy" only in name.
Linux is one of the many tools in the arsenal available to the average person to protect themselves from this kind of tyrrany. This is why Linux is unstoppable. It doesn't matter what happens in the world of business, or how many laws get written by the greedy corporations, Linux and the *BSDs are here until something even better comes along to defend every human's free right to compute. While many readers will scoff at this assertion, they know in their hearts that I speak the truth. Once someone has had a taste of the true freedom that free and open software offers them compared to the limitations of proprietary offerings, they will not want to sacrifice that freedom. Where proprietary software businesses have a bottom line to worry about and need a fast time to market for their latest wares, the free/oss camp is quietly working away at making better quality, robust programs. free/oss might be behind the bleeding edge, but every time they catch up, the free/oss offersing are always better than the proprietary. Witness the huge successes of Apache, Samba, Firefox and Thunderbird. In every case they outperform and are more secure, robust and stable than their counterparts where it counts. Proprietary software proponents have already put themselves into a trapped state of mind by percieving a competition where there is none. The fact that they believe they are competing is actually amusing. But the truth is that they can't succeed in their percieved game without cheating (relying on corrupt politicians to write more and more restrictive legislation) and alienating their consumers. Are those of you who support proprietary software really willing to give up control of your machine if the corporate government mandates that you do? I would doubt that. For if you do, you are truly dumber than I give you credit for.
depending on design of the robot, it may have more than one running CPU
Agreed. I've seen some process equipment that has a built in network. The material feed systoem has it's processer, the process modules have their own processors (several), the chemical supply system has it's own processors, and the main control module is it's own processor. If any processor signals it's not ready, the process halts to prevent messing up a batch. The more modules you have running an unstable OS, the more likely you will have downtime in addition to the software cost per processor. A module messing up during processing = expensive scrapped material. Your OS choice goes way beyond the purchase price per processor. Uptime reliability is very important.
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Obviously. But the differences explain the trends.
Robots don't have any user interface candy. They are essential servers that control complex equipment. Open source, reliability, portability to random microprocessors... all these are top requirements. Windows never controlled any robots. Linux has taken market share from other proprietary operating systems.
PDAs are 100% user interface, and even those who dislike Microsoft's approach to software must admit that they produce nice user interfaces. Not as nice as Apples... but that's another story. PalmOS is simple but the benefit of a zero learning curve only applies when most users are newbies. People want more now. Windows delivers, PalmOS does not.
Mobile phones are more like robots. If you've used a new Symbian phone you'll realise just how far this goes from the walk-up-and-use interface of a classic GSM. Frankly I think 90% of phone sales will remain driven by simplicity, not functionality. Windows does not have a path here.
Lastly, I think the next big competitor in PDAs is not PalmOS nor Linux, but Apple. It's a natural progression from iPods and Apple are the only people who make nicer toys than Microsoft.
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Palmsource has decided that the next version of Palm will be based on Linux. So soon the major OSes for PDAs will be Windows and Linux (plus symbian). Personally, I have the Zaurus c760, and think it is great. Having the ability to use the huge library of linux software for the device is great (i run pdaXrom, so X-ware can mostly be made to work). I just wish Sharp or others would get their fingers out and offer more selections and market it better. -TN
In areas where there is a Hacker in charge, for example, sysadmins, developers, etc. a Unix like OS will most certainly be choosen
I guess that I and the other programmers I know that choose to use Windows just don't exist then, huh?
It really depends on what you use the machine for. There's nothing that I personally need to do under Linux that I can't do equally well under Windows, and to my mind XP is just plain easier on the eye. That may have changed recently, of course - the last Linux distro I tried was Mandrake 10. There was nothing really wrong with it, it just wasn't as aethestically pleasing. (That's an extremely subjective thing, of cousre)
It's official. Most of you are morons.
In the "real" world, however, on embedded systems outside PDAs, there isn't much Windows at all.
It's a mystery to me that Linux hasn't yet taken over both of these markets completely, end to end. It's free. It comes with full source code which you can tweak to your heart's content, it can be trimmed down to work in a frickin' wristwatch, it runs all the software you could possibly need, and if you need something extra, guess what, development tools are also free.
Yet PDA makers insist on paying the dough to MSFT instead of hiring a dozen Linux hackers to do "spit & polish" on their distro of choice.
I guess this is because PDA market is not yet cost driven, and PDAs are still perceived as useless geeky toys.
Industrial robot controllers either run a custom RTOS for handling both robot control and UI, i.e. fanuc, or a two OS solution with the RTOS handling robot control and Windows CE/XP(e) running the user interface, i.e. kuka or motoman.
I have yet run across an industrial robot running any sort of linux/rt linux. However, it's a matter of time before linux makes its way into industrial robots - it boils down to runtime licencse fees. Linux is already making big inroads into telecommunications applications, i.e Wind River.
Disclaimer - I work for KUKA Robotics in their N.A. development labs.
And their mobile phone products suck - they've even crashed. That is something mobile users aren't to accept, because other key players seem to have it worked out better
Actually hate to admit it but the HTC Typhoon (goes by many names) is the best smartphone I've tried (and I've tried a few, including it's lousy predecessors). It's very small and lightweight and has excellent battery life, and still full featured and easy to use smartphone. And I believe it's gotten very good reviews almost everywhere.
It doesn't crash on me, but non-MS-based Motorolas have..