I'll comment on the "lack of support" issue because it's one I had to answer
here as well. I just finished a proof of concept for running Linux as an
embedded OS on our custom board. These are Elan Sc400's with 32M RAM and 8M
of flash. I've worked with vxWorks, WinCE, and others in the past, and I
have to say that the amount of support I got from this mailing list alone
was better than I've ever experienced from a commercial entity. And that's
not to mention the rest of the Linux world when it comes to general Linux
support. If you look back though some of the old mail, you'll see what I
mean. Also, of course, nothing beats having the code! The proof of concept
went very well and I think it's safe to say that Linux will be my default
choice going ahead for high-end embedded work.
One other thing that I see as a huge win with Linux is that you can do most
of your development on a standard Linux workstation, and it will **just
work** on your embedded target. In other words a Pentium III 600Mhz machine
running RedHat 6.0 is a very good emulation of a 486 running a RedHat
6.0-based kernel.
Andy Waddell
Manager, Embedded Platforms Group
Turnstone Systems, Inc.
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.turnstone.com
-----Original Message-----
From: M. Tim Jones [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 7:59 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Linux and Commercial Embedded Products
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?
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?
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.
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.
Thanks in advance!
Tim.
--
M. Tim Jones - Core Platform Lead
Mobile Networking Technologies
CellPort Labs Inc. <http://www.cellport.com>
4888 East Pearl Circle Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 541-0722 (voice) (303) 541-0731 (fax) (303) 517-3392 (mob)
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