One thing that I think may detract folks from using Linux as an embedded OS is its hackability. For example, TiVo is now hacked 10 ways from sunday. As long as it's adding hard drives and so on, the TiVo folks have been pretty cool about it, but when the encryption scheme for storing recordings was hacked, that leaves them open to legal problems.
While proprietary EOS's are more difficult (for many of the reasons outlined in the article), they can be much more secure (in the weak sense of security through obscurity) than Linux.
By all means, you should try to get out and see this, but keep in mind that predictions are varying wildly as to how spectacular this will be. Some early reports described this shower as big as the Leonid showers in 1966, but current predictions peg this one as 1/10th as large. So expect a good show, but don't expect your eyes to be burned out of your sockets with wonder.
From the press release, what is being alleged is some collusion between VA Linux and Credit Suisse First Boston. These types of lawsuits are pretty common (as are lawsuits every time a stock price drops significantly).
The plaintiffs in this case are shareholders, so they really don't want to wreck the company any more than we want the company to go under.
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One thing that I think may detract folks from using Linux as an embedded OS is its hackability. For example, TiVo is now hacked 10 ways from sunday. As long as it's adding hard drives and so on, the TiVo folks have been pretty cool about it, but when the encryption scheme for storing recordings was hacked, that leaves them open to legal problems.
While proprietary EOS's are more difficult (for many of the reasons outlined in the article), they can be much more secure (in the weak sense of security through obscurity) than Linux.
By all means, you should try to get out and see this, but keep in mind that predictions are varying wildly as to how spectacular this will be. Some early reports described this shower as big as the Leonid showers in 1966, but current predictions peg this one as 1/10th as large. So expect a good show, but don't expect your eyes to be burned out of your sockets with wonder.
I've seen these types of lawsuits before.
From the press release, what is being alleged is some collusion between VA Linux and Credit Suisse First Boston. These types of lawsuits are pretty common (as are lawsuits every time a stock price drops significantly).
The plaintiffs in this case are shareholders, so they really don't want to wreck the company any more than we want the company to go under.