"LinuxDevices.com's survey results consistently show Debian to be the most popular distribution among device developers. For example, our 2007 survey indicated that Debian was used in device-related projects by 13 percent of the survey's 932 participants, roughly double the score of MontaVista, the most popular strictly-embedded distribution. In addition to Debian's 13 percent score, Ubuntu, which is based on Debian packages, jumped to 6 percent this year, its first year in our survey. In contrast, Red Hat, achieved a 5 percent score and Fedora came in at 6 percent, while SUSE scored just 2 percent. The complete results and analysis are here. Why do device developers prefer Debian?"
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2005-07-08
Member since:
2006-01-07
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2005-07-06
Yet another useless statistics.
First, they are not talking about "device developers" - they are talking about embedded platforms *... and if the OP doesn't know the difference between the two, he shouldn't be posting in OS news.
Out of 932 participants, ~150 were using boot-strapped distros (kernel.org?) ~130 were using Debian, 110 were using RedHat/Fedora... with other embedded-only distros eating ~300 others.
Considering the survey relatively small size, huge market fragmentation (with a large number of embedded only players) and the market type (which is unknown to most users), I doubt that this survey means anything to most OSNew users.
Now, given the mis-leading title (“device developers”) and the article extract itself, I can only assume that it was the OP's intension to start yet-another-Debian-vs.-RedHat/SUSE/Mandriva/World flame war and as such:
Move along folks, nothing to see here.
- Gilboa
Hence the title "What sources of Linux were/will be in your (company's) embedded designs?"
Member since:2005-07-24
"""
I can only assume that it was the OP's intension to start yet-another-Debian-vs.-RedHat/SUSE/Mandriva/World flame war
"""
I'm not a Debian user, but if Debian is preferred by developers of embedded devices, I'm cool with that. I'm a CentOS fan who happens to be running an Ubuntu desktop. But it's all Linux, of course, and I firmly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.
I ran across this fun little vignette the other day which is about users of web frameworks but is easily adaptable to fans of Linux distros:
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* Person 1: "What do you do for a living?"
* Person 2: "I work with computers."
* Person 1: "So do I! What do you do with computers?"
* Person 2: "I'm a Web developer."
* Person 1: "So am I! Design, client-side programming or server-side programming?"
* Person 2: "Server-side programming."
* Person 1: "Same here! Do you use dynamically typed languages or statically typed languages?"
* Person 2: "Dynamically typed languages."
* Person 1: "So do I! Do you use a Web framework, or do you roll things on your own?"
* Person 2: "I use a Web framework."
* Person 1: "So do I! Django or Rails?"
* Person 2: "Django."
* Person 1: "Die, heretic scum!"
=============
I believe that its roots can be traced back to this piece:
=============
The heretic
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are your Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, Me too! Are your Episcopalian or Baptist? He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! Are your Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord? He said, Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are your Original Baptist Church of God or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.
=============
Odd how we can be so funny and so sad at the same time. ;-)
Edited 2007-05-01 04:48
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2007-04-30
It has strict, high quality packaging policies and apt-get is old, tested, and true. Most Debian distros are compatible with each other. Even still, they allow high quality packages into non-free so you don't mess up your system with low quality repositories. That's why I used Debian-derived distros on the desktop, at least. And debconf is great, too. Although I think more embedded devices use ipkg (compatible with dpkg) http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/Ipkg
Edited 2007-04-30 23:26
Member since:
2005-11-11
Member since:2007-04-06
It's for embedded systems. You don't need to run your desktop apps here. It will be used in places where you won't even know it exists. Companies pick and choose which source of linux to use. Some are free and optimized for a particular processor, some are paid for and with support, some are real time oriented and so on.
Win CE is a competition (that too only when ARM is concerned) , Haiku, ReactOS and other desktop OS don't matter here.
Member since:2005-11-11