If I understand correctly, BlueCat is still vaporware. Seems I
recall a June release timeframe. In the software biz, especially
in Open Source, I wouldn't rely on any 'birds in the bush'.
If it currently isn't shipping (and I mean that you can really
get your hands on a copy, not that it is in some sale's guy's
price book), then don't count on it showing up at any particular
time. This can be frustrating to commercial houses, that expect
that they can throw money at someone and get them to ship
features they want. For Linux, you get whatever is out there,
and it's not a good idea to make plans based on what someone
has promised that you have no control over.
Having said that, there are some current players out there,
Lineo Embedix being one that I know of. They have a 1.0 release,
based on Caldera, that you can download to try out. It's
still kinda' raw, but the basic stuff is there, and it
has a nice, small footprint. Lineo promises to have
more sophisticated development and configuration tools
out 'real soon now', but just like the above, I wouldn't
hold my breath. They do have a reasonable 84-page PDF
file that describes how the distro is put together, though.
Looking through that should give you an idea of how you
could extend and/or embed the system.
On the other hand, the nice thing about getting such
broad-based source (the kernel is common across most
all of the distributions), is that you can either find
someone else to do enhancements, or you can do them
yourselves. Once you have a basic release, like the
Lineo Embedix or the Linux on a Floppy (LOAF) project,
then using HOWTOS and similar info, you can figure
out how to make a FLASH- or net-bootable image, or
write a specialized device driver for your hardware.
Later, you could adopt someone's more
sophisticated distro, like BlueCat, if and when it
becomes ready. In the meantime, you can make
significant progress on your own, or with the
help of similar like-minded embedded developers.
Cheers,
-- DaveN
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Beckmann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 12:15 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: BlueCat Linux
Has anyone used BlueCat linux yet? My compnay is considering it, due to the
price and my pushing towards getting a linux type OS over using Windows CE.
The only requirement that my company has is that we be able to program a
visual program and that it can write to a memory device. We have no need for
the hard real time OS's just yet.
I also realize that it is pretty much just the RedHat version put in a
different box, but we like the option of getting support if we need it, and
I don't think RedHat is likely to have the answers that we would be seeking,
if something came up. Such as how to make the kernel XIP, or a few other
embedded related issues.
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Jerry
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Design Engineer
Triad Controls
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