Caldera pulls Motorola onto Linux Bandwagon

PowerPC writes "Motorola will be announcing their alliance with Caldera Systems and Lineo according to this article over at ZD-Net. " While I still mantain that "Lineo" is one of the dumbest names I've ever heard, Motorola will be working with both them and Caldera Systems. As would be expected from Motorla, the focus is going to be on embedded devices, and using Linux in that environment.

Comments

OH, DON'T SAY *THAT*

[BattyMan]

From the sound of the situation you describe, the embedded market is *ripe* for a PORTABLE, OPEN SOURCE environment, complete with scalable kernel adaptable to "real-time" scheduling, runtime libraries, and development tools.

There are thousands of penny-ante guys (like, for instance, myself) who would be in business making short-run embedded equipment if the entry fees were NOT SO HIGH. Linux ports will lower this wall, enabling a plethora of new developers to write code for and *buy* stuff like yer 8240 without having to shell out a raft of money for tools.

Is it *that* tough to port gcc to another machine?

Re:ok so where is 8240 support?

[Real Timer]

Don't be so hard on the MCG. The 8240 is pretty new. I don't even no if they have a product based on it yet. Remember, these guys are only sell boards and computers, not the chips (that's Motorola Semiconductor).

I've used the "crappy" RTOS you mentioned, and was actually able to get working drivers for their boards from the MCG. You're right that they're in the business of selling hardware, but if in the process, they contribute to GNU/Linux, what's the problem. Adopting a wait and see attitude is fine, but hold back on the criticism til there's something to criticize.

Related Links

[BadlandZ]

ZDNET story
Register Article
Clip 1 from yesterday at mu.current.nu:
Motorola Computer Group is going to be at the Linux Expo August 9-12 in San Jose, CA, to talk about using Motorola hardware for embedded Linux solutions.
Related Clip from Sunday on mu.current.nu: The PPTP Server is out, brought to you by Moreton Bay. If you don't remember who they are, maybe I can remind you, in February we released the first Linux port to the Motorola Coldfire family of processors. The nice thing to note, is that coldfire hardware can be had from Motorola Digital DNA at a fairly reasonable price.

Re:Related Links

[BadlandZ]

Oh, I don't work on coldfire. check out mu.current.nu if you think those links are cool. It's sorta slashdot like, but focused on this kind of news specificly...

Vague and Useless.

[pb]

More Linux is good, but I'm not convinced that Caldera is. I hate press releases.

For example, if they're bringing us a low-cost, Unixish solution, what do we have already? A *free* Unixish solution...

If they're bringing us the ability to make embedded solutions, then what do all those car MP3 players already run on? Hmm... Linux, maybe?

Maybe I'd believe them if "OpenLinux" was an Open version of Linux, instead of something more like what the Open Group would do if they got their hands on Linux.

Now, I know that companies add enhancements into the OS, but do they have to *sell* them, without source? Hmm? That's why I like Red Hat. As well as funding development, they don't charge as much for what they also release for free, either...

Re:Vague and Useless.

[pb]

You don't have to publish your enhancements if you release binary-only kernel modules, and I wouldn't put it past Caldera to do so. If they had a spotless track record, I wouldn't fuss about it.

I agree that Linux wasn't designed for embedded work, but since it has such massive driver support, such a decent programming environment, can run on a 386 (which is very cheap...) and gives out the source, it's an immediate candidate for a high-end embedded machine.

I'm not convinced that anyone would want to use it for a smart toaster. For trying to put a "real" OS on anything less than a 386, you might as well use DOS, or Minix, or fund development in ELKS... However, I fail to see why most people would want to do this in the first place.

The other consideration is that the Linux kernel has gotten a little memory hungry compared to previous incarnations. I don't know how stripped down you could make it, but there's a lot of code that could be left out in your average embedded system. (only use romfs for a filesystem, don't need a terminal or any extraneous peripherals, etc., etc.) However, I'd still want to have 8MB of RAM, or something to swap to, failing that.

I'd hope that a properly written application could only use a fixed amount of memory, but of course it depends on what you're doing. Any memory leaks in the system will always have to be fixed...

ok so where is 8240 support?

[Anonymous Coward]

Believe me this whole thing is a crock of shit.

Embedded Motorola is NOT Motorola. These guys are still living in the stone age. I just talked to our FAE, and he doesn't know jack shit about embedded linux/egcs/gcc (or even care). They pass Diab all the appropriate stuff and wash their hands of it. They don't want to be in the compiler business, and they don't want to be in the OS business.

Open source embedded design has a LONG way to go. There are so few developer/end users compared to desktop systems. To make matters worse, most of the embedded engineers I know (and no, they aren't stupid) dont know JACK about OS design. We buy a crappy RTOS from ISI/Greenhills/Windriver, pay them a TON of money for software we get 0 source code to, PLUS fork over per unit royalty fees, and get on our knees and thank the Lord that somebody sees fit to write an OS for our particular target.

Then, we call up Diab, and they charge us another ton of cash for their compiler, again, who's source we have no access to, and who's portability is restricted to the platforms Diab decides is the most profitable for them.

I don't see (embedded) Motorola helping egcs. I don't see Motorola helping linux developers. They are in the hardware business. Hopefully, Caldera will bridge the gap...

But I'll believe it when i see it.

Yes, this is a hole that needs to be filled, but so far there is no incentive for anybody to start the dump trucks.