Embedded Systems Design - June 2008 - (Page 10)

parity bit Embedded Linux rants and raves ell, they gave you the tinder and you lit the ﬁre! (Dan O’Dowd, “Embedded Linux: With friends like these, who needs enemies?” Guest Editor column, May 2008, p.10, www.embedded.com/ columns/guest/207402542) If both companies used reverse psychology to get newer customers, you’ve taken them to task generalising their non-ofﬁcial statements as company strategy. Even though I don’t support either of these companies, I do use and propagate embedded Linux. It’s still a boon for a large amount of companies who require embedded systems (not just devices). Green Hills itself sells development tools that are prohibitively expensive to mid-sized users or smaller companies. Embedded Linux liberates those users who still have a blatant need to put an operating system in their systems. Dan O’Dowd could use embedded.com in a much better way by telling us how to build a low-cost embedded system with the Green Hills SDK. —The Buddha Embedded pro, CEO Posted on Embedded.com Forum I’m not sure what’s worse—the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) O’ Dowd quotes in the article or how he propagates it. Any embedded systems producer that is spending engineer-days (or engineer-weeks) trying to “keep abreast of the changes occurring on a daily basis” in Linux is misdirecting its effort so badly that it deserves W to be bleeding money. That’s not the way to leverage Linux for an embedded system. I suspect that some, if not many, of the companies who have experi- so can the scores of independent consultants in the market, who have, many quite successfully, formed a business out of applying Linux and open source to embedded systems. Few if any of those consultants find it necessary to “create the need” for their service with flashy, scary, full-page ads and creative typography. Fewer feel the need to submit an article to Embedded.com for no other reason than, ostensibly, to throw mud in every direction. —Robot Dan Senior Software Engineer Posted on Embedded.com Forum You forgot the summary. Allow me: “Competitor takes embedded Linux vendor sound bites out of context, spins them for maximum FUD.” Had Green Hills just come out and said that this was a shill piece, it would have actually been an improvement. —Bill Gatliff Embedded Systems Developer Contributing Editor Posted on Embedded.com Forum $19,623,750 for three year of deployment? Try less than $200,000. We started with a snapgear distribution for a reference board and a copy of Linux Device Drivers and have used Linux for multiple projects shipping 5,000 per year for four years. This took about 1 1/2 man years for Linux conﬁguration and support, including the time my sharp The Guest Editor column on embedded Linux sparks controversy, mostly about who wrote it and why. enced “embedded Linux nightmares,” running to MontaVista or whomever for help, have done so out of a lack of understanding of the way that open-source software and the open-source community work. MontaVista and Wind River have a lot of good products to offer (besides Linux help), and I’m certain they can help a company out of whatever Linux jam they think they’ve gotten themselves into, but 10 JUNE 2008 | embedded systems design | www.embedded.com http://www.embedded.com/columns/guest/207402542 http://www.embedded.com/columns/guest/207402542 http://Embedded.com http://Embedded.com http://Embedded.com http://Embedded.com http://Embedded.com http://Embedded.com http://www.embedded.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Embedded Systems Design - June 2008

Embedded Systems Design - June 2008 Contents #Include Party Bit Programmer's Toolbox Cover Feature: Virtual Hardware Platforms for Embedded Software Validation Allocating Memory in MATLAB-to-C Code MDD and IDEs: Making the Twain Meet in Embedded Systems Design Avoid a Thrashing Guest Editor Advertising Index Break Points Marketplace

Embedded Systems Design - June 2008

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