On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, M. Tim Jones wrote:
> I'm aware that Linux has been used as the OS for a number of different
> embedded commercial products, but I'm interested in hearing from folks
> who've done it and have any advice on the risks and benefits.
>
> One concern I have is the constant evolution the OS. This is great, but
> it also represents a moving target for an embedded platform. As the OS
> evolves, bug-fixes and new functionality are added. Is there a way to
> patch a specific release to fix defects, but not add new functionality?
Backporting of bug fixes (and yes, new functionality too) is routinely
done for the stable series of kernels. Just take the time to only add the
bug fixes to the release you want and ignore any new features that came in
that patch. This takes time, but it's doable with the source.
> Commercial RTOS vendors commonly state that the lack of technical
> support makes Linux unusable as a commercial platform. I don't quite
> see this, since Linux appears to be discussed more than almost any other
> operating system. Has anyone suffered due to a lack of technical
> support?
This really is FUD. I can tell you that the big conventional RTOS vendors
are _very scared_ of Linux. Wind River should be especially scared since
they sit at the top and make a nice target. Lineo's offering of Huricane
and Embedix are obviously aimed right at a portion of the market that Wind
River commands. Buying into a Lineo or Hard Hat Linux solution will
eliminate the argument against support that "rolling your own" embedded
Linux solution brings up...it does cost money, though.
> What about FreeBSD vs Linux wrt licensing issues? I've heard, but
> haven't yet confirmed, that licensing is much more relaxed with FreeBSD
> than with Linux.
BSD vs. GPL. I'll warn you that you could be opening a religious war. In
a nutshell, modifying GPL code requires that you release the source
changes in a convenient manner if you distribute binaries. BSD doesn't
have this stipulation. This isn't a big deal unless you are doing a lot
of kernel changes that you don't want to release. Practically, drivers
can be binary-only modules and userland code can be binary-only under a
different copyright with no problem.
> It's clear from recent press that Linux is making an impact in embedded
> development. Wind River recently relaxed its per-project seat licensing
> and others have reduced their per-incorporation runtime royalties. Many
> believe this is due to the embedded Linux development trend.
Sure is. I know our customers are demanding Linux on our high-end
embedded platforms...otherwise I'd still be hacking kernel support in the
middle of the night. :)
--
Matt Porter Motorola Computer Group
[EMAIL PROTECTED] CIBU Linux Support
--
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with the command "unsubscribe linux-embedded" in the message body.
For more information, see <http://waste.org/mail/linux-embedded>.
