Linux is rapidly gaining market share in embedded operating systems. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 20% right now,” says Nadamuni. That’s a far cry from the middle single digits, where Nadamuni put Linux two years ago, says LinuxInsider.
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I am not surprised that Linux is gaining ground especially in embedded OSs. This is a good thing because now Linux has found its niche from being a hobbyist OS to a mainstream OS that can deployed almost anywhere. The question is whether it can keep up the pace at which it is moving. Obviously, with the SCO case, Linux has gained more fame, the question is how long will it last?! As a Linux user(home & hobbyist user), I can say that Linux has come a long way. I am curious how the next few months pan out for Linux.
The thing that always mistifies me is the number of embedded system developers who are not put off by the GPL. I would have expected many to shun Linux for these applications because of it. It’s certainly great to see Linux getting into more of the things we use in our everyday lives.
Hi
Their value is in the hardware. the os is just a hardware enabler for them and they cant lose any value by releasing code they changed and moreover they can use proprietary modules like nvidia does if needed
regards
Jess
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 20% right now,”
I would be surprised if it were more than 0,2% now. Is this guy for real?
I would be surprised if it were more than 0,2% now. Is this guy for real?
Agreed. Kinda. First off — I like Linux — Before someone flames me, imagine me repeating that 1000 times in both of your ears.
Now that that’s out of the way: Linux is outclassed as an embedded or RTOS. Whether people want it or not is a different issue I guess. I can see it gaining even more than %20 market share eventually, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best, or even 4th or 5th “best” for that matter. But it’s the openness of it that wins out.
Google gets 200million searches a day, out of those many users 90% using the Windows operating system.
source: maximumpcmagazine,april 2004
Total number of linux users is 1%
source: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
//
Hi
Thats amount of people who search for the word “linux” is google. anybody who had some sense wouldnt search for such generic words
according to google lindows is the 4th best gaining query. it doesnt mean lindows is being used more than any other distro.
Jess
Why are people bringing up Google searches? They are talking about 20% of embedded platforms, not 20% of machines overall. You’d be surprised the things that run Linux. A lot of wireless access points, for example, run Linux. Along with lots of storage appliances. And PDAs. And cell-phones.
Its easy to see why Linux is getting so popular in this space. An OS like VxWorks is hideously expensive (and they charge even more for development tools), and powerful MIPS, PowerPC, and ARM embedded CPUs have made absolute-best performance much less necessary.