Embedded Developers Prefer Linux, Love Android 104
DeviceGuru writes "In a recent EE Times 2013 Embedded Market study, Android was the OS of choice for future embedded projects among 16 percent of the survey's participants, second only to 'in-house/custom' (at 28 percent). But if a spectrum of disparate approaches can be lumped together as a single option, why not aggregate the various shades of Linux to see how they compare? Parsing the EE Times data that way makes it abundantly clear that Linux truly dominates the embedded market."
Re:Wrong conclusions from the data (Score:5, Insightful)
This of course is purely anecdotal and based on my consumer grade experiences. But given how eagerly Dalvik disposes of anything connected to a process that'S not in the foreground I wouldn't consider using it to do anything important. As an abstraction layer for vastly different hardware running the same crap it works quite nicely. But you shouldn't attach hydraulics, engines, valves or anything else important to it.
Also let's not forget how long it took to get Linux anywhere near equipment that needs an RT OS. And it possibly still isn't the first choice in such environments. I've been out of that loop for a long time and have been known to be wrong. So this is no engineering advice.
Re:News at eleven (Score:2, Insightful)
In 2000, F5 networks and vmware were already running linux as many others were.
It is just not that well known, they kind of not advertise it that much...
Re:Wrong conclusions from the data (Score:5, Insightful)
Engineering's job is to make what marketing want work, not argue about whether the market wants the right thing. Underneath Android is still Linux, anything that needs to avoid garbage collection can easily run outside of the dalvik VM.
Re:Wrong conclusions from the data (Score:5, Insightful)
"Engineering's job is to make what marketing want work, not argue about whether the market wants the right thing."
Complete nonsense. Granted, that's how some companies are run, but generally it is not a very successful formula.
If you want your company to be successful, it is the job of Engineering to tell Marketing what works well and what doesn't. Marketing may want something specific, but if it doesn't work well, it won't sell well either.
Apple is a good example. Engineering drives marketing as much as the other way around.