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Linux in Web Appliances
Lawrence_Bird writes "Reuters put a piece out overnite commenting on
the use of Linux in web appliances. It has a
few quotes from Linus and comments specifically
on TiVo Inc. " Comments on the RH IPO, Linux on Merced, and a
few other bits.
This is interesting, although not new (I once read someone was porting the Linux kernel to run on both a Laser Jet III and Furby--probably neither is true, but both are interesting).
It seems fairly obvious, though, once you learn a bit about what it takes to create an operating system, that it's easier to borrow ideas and--more importantly--implementations from somewhere else that to create them yourself from scratch. It seems only logical that the people who are creating embedded systems are better off using existing solutions to existing problems (provided they solve those problems) rather than create new solutions. So, articles like this are in some sense old news--they are telling us something we already know will happen, since, unlike most other kernels, the source code is entirely and freely available for perusal and borrowing.
As far as Linux being the flavor of the month: Of course it is. At any given time the media has to have its darlings. But that doesn't change the fact that the Linux kernel is stable, has been in production for years, and has a long history of reliability behind it. What the last 6 months of media attention does buy for Linux is a mainstream acceptability which would otherwise have been very difficult to come by. How would people in corporate IT shops have come to find out about this "wonderful new operating system" if not from the media? This is a good thing--even if the media is over-hyping linux to the point where you roll your eyes at "Yet Another Linux Cover Article" on Generic Computer Users magazine.
Seriously, though--a year ago, everyone that I knew who had heard of Linux was in academia. My old comrades from CS 101 were studying the Linux kernel years before I entered the corporate marketplace. When I set up my first Linux box here (November '97) nobody knew what they heck I was doing--"Hey, that's a weird DOS prompt"--and nobody was interested.
The huge exposure is a good thing, of course; let the "flavor of the month" thing run its course, and in the end, the people who really Got It will still be using it, and the ones who latched on to the Linux Fad will meander on to the Next Big Thing (maybe Java again?).
darren
(darren)