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Linux Software

Gadgets With Linux Inside 75

Posted by michael from the veni-vidi-vici dept.
An anonymous submitter sends in a link to a quick reference guide of various devices and gadgets that are in some way running Linux. Cell phones, set-top boxes, web pads, internet radios, and some miscellaneous gizmos (definitely take a look at the "other" page).
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Gadgets With Linux Inside More

Gadgets With Linux Inside

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  • of running linux on these odd devices ?
    Of course, besides the hacking fun.
    Any special apps ?

    • Re:Is there any "real" use (Score:4, Informative)

      by joe_bruin ( 266648 ) on Sunday October 07, 2001 @05:31AM (#2397337) Homepage Journal

      these devices ship with linux, it's their embedded os. linux is making enormous gains in the embedded world due to the fact that it is both royalty free to ship, the source is completely available, the development tools are both free and familiar, and there is a fair amount of developers out there who are familiar with the kernel/drivers (but you already know this, of course).

      consider a device like the oh-so-popular tivo [tivo.com] or something more obscure like the phatbox [phatnoise.com] or other portable devices. the makers of these devices have the options of:

      • paying a dollar to people like windriver (who effectively monopolized bsd, along with vxworks, psos, and others) or psion for every unit shipped
      • a couple of large bills to for a development license (qnx, ...)
      • a mighty sum for development tools (green hills, nucleus, ...)
      • all of the above (microsoft windows ce)
      • or, get it all for free by using linux.

      under many of these options, i doubt these (probably very small) companies would have ever been able to afford to bring a product to market. and every dollar that doesn't go to a 3rd party at retail is a dollar that goes towards r&d for the super-tivo or whatever (or stays in your pocket).

      yes, i'm preaching to the choir. let them sing.

      joe

      • The Phatbox sounds nice untill you check out their software. Windoze only crap..
        • Yeah, and *USB* to load songs. God, I'd be waiting all day. Put a real ethernet or wireless interface in that thing. Wireless would be great, just drive into the garage and download.
          • I just added a wireless nic to my car. My linux box is fully booted before I pull out of the garage. Before, I've gone out of range, the carpc [dashpc.com] has downloaded the latest slashdot headlines, weather, and traffic. Here [dashpc.com] is a link to the car.
      • Yes, but linux is a rather "large" OS.
        O.k. you can shrink it down,
        but you'll never need all it's functionality.
        Especially when you want low power consumption,
        then you need low computational power.
        The only pro-linux point I see here is the fact that it's free.
        • You didn't you do your homework, did you Mr. Wizard?

          If you had, you would have seen all the different proyects that shrink linux into a compact package.
          There are distros that fit into a single floppy or even less (see the IBM Linux wristwatch).


          Also Linus himself and the boys at Transmeta have done a lot of work on Linux power management.

        • >Is there any "real" use

          The fact that there are actual shipping products that use Linux in embedded devices indicates that there are "real" uses. Try reading the article.

          >Yes, but linux is a rather "large" OS.

          I would tend to disagree with this.

          Distributions of Linux tend to be very large. The size of the "operating system" is a very variable thing.

          Of course, the kernel itself can be built to suit and can be made quite small. If you are building an embedded device, the list of stuff (outside of the kernel) you don't have to package on your system would trim down the size considerably:

          no source code
          no development libraries
          no development tools
          no X

          probably only the one application for which the device exists instead of the hundreds that included in a typical distro.

          "Linux" can be made small enough to fit on a floppy disk and run completely on a ramdisk (LRP [linuxrouter.org]).

          My example is my 386 with 4 meg and 100 MB drive running my cable modem' masq box. I'm running a kernel with everything stripped out but the bare essentials. I'm using Debian with just the barest set of packages installed. This machine is a single-purpose device with a very small OS. If I had the time or needed to, I could probably make this even smaller.

          The beauty of using Linux for these purposes is that you can trim it down to just the functionality to want/need to get it to fit into your device. At least, doing so is a lot cheaper than rolling your own OS.
      • And there are plenty of others you don't hear about either.

  • and if they don't hack my cellular... (Score:3, Funny)

    by motherhead ( 344331 ) on Sunday October 07, 2001 @05:17AM (#2397324)

    DaimlerChrysler unveiled its newest concept car at the North American International Auto Show in January, 2001: the Dodge Super8 Hemi "all-American sedan." The vehicle's Infotronic system is based on four Ethernet-networked PC-compatible computers -- all running on embedded Linux.

    "yeah honey, I need a ride home again... 1337 h4x0rZ again... yeah..."

  • Not surprising (Score:2, Interesting)

    by glwillia ( 31211 )
    Recently, embedded systems has been one area where Linux really excels, and where the power of Open Source really shines. Especially things like the Isamu robot: would that have been possible with a closed-source OS like Windows CE, VxWorks, or QNX, no matter how good they may be? And, thanks in large part to things like the MOSIX project, Linux is ready to handle the real-time demands of applications such as these, where infallible reliability, several megabytes of RAM and a low-power microprocessor are the norm. I think the pundits are right, in a sense: Linux will invade the home and workplace. Not on the desktop, necessarily, but in all the systems you see and don't really think about, and that you don't interact with via keyboard and mouse. We're already starting to see this, as this article demonstrates.
    • I used to work for a place that made an OS for smart phones. We had a heck of a time convincing any manufacturers that they wanted an OS, any OS. They didn't rknow much about software engineering; they didn't have much in the way of shared code.

  • Great (Score:2, Funny)

    by mnordstr ( 472213 )
    I especially like Isamu [linuxdevices.com] , the humanoid robot =)
    He would probably like to play with my stuffed Tux.
  • That Isamu Robot [linuxdevices.com] is just absolutely amazing.

    If there are any Japanese readers out there, please consider coordinating with slashdot to do a interview/review with the staff that created this machine.

    This is a very timely and enjoyable article for me--it seems like all I've seen in the papers and magazines is MS FUD lately...even the embedded journals are getting swamped with WinCE and other MS embedded strategy ads. Seems like anywhere a dollar is changing hands, MS wants to reach in and snatch it way from the two parties.

    But, I digress. It's nice to see such a rich set of Engineering accomplishments using the Linux platform--I had no idea that much was happening. Very informative and well-written article.

    • Re:Isamu Robot (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The Isamu Robot is really not new; CowboyNeal was built far earlier, and runs on Linux.
      • The Isamu Robot is really not new; CowboyNeal was built far earlier, and runs on Linux.

        No problem; so was/do I. But Isamu is humanoid!

        Kiwaiti

    • That Isamu Robot is just absolutely amazing.

      That brought up the quick idea of robots on other OSen.

      Made me loose my coffee first thing this morning.

  • Linux PDA (Score:2, Funny)

    by Spootnik ( 518145 )
    www.handhelds.org [handhelds.org] is a good web page devoted to PDA type information. As a point of interest, iPAQs can run Linux in several different flavors. The YOPY kit is rediculously prices and I don't believe I would ever buy one with the advances being made by the developers of Linux on the IPAQ. In my opinion, that is where the fun is if you want to work with Linux on a PDA. If you just want to use a Linux PDA you could get an agenda or wait for perhaps Sharp to release one later this year. HP has also made rumblings about a Linux PDA.

  • Limited applicability? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Linux wristwatches and in-car computers are pretty cool, but notice the absence of applications for embedded Linux in any life-critical/medical devices.

    One of the touted benefits of open source software is the ability to more widely distribute the tasks of detecting and fixing bugs.

    On the flip side, though, if open source software fails critically, there is no single person or corporation to blame; no recourse or remedy.

    That alone, it seems, would be enough for major corporations (with mission critical applications such as life support and the like) to avoid a serious investment in Linux or any software sans accountability).

    Yes, I realize that most EULAs disclaim software publishers of any meaningful warranty anyway, but at least Microsoft's ass could be dragged into court if someone died because of a BSOD.
    • Actually, I work on a team that is using Open Source (modified GPL) software for our RTOS [oarcorp.com] that does run in a Hospital Point of Care device. The company that manufactures this device is a very big player in this market.

      I think there were several concerns about going with Linux as our embedded OS - We were looking for something more along the lines of an RTOS, with guaranteed task handling. There were also concerns about having to GPL our software. While we don't mind giving back to the community any OS changes we make, our application code is what gives us a competitive advantage, and publishing it just doesn't make good business sense.

      You've also mentioned that businesses wouldn't want to purchase Open Source software because there is no accountability. Actually, for the our project, we get the best of both worlds. OAR Corp [oarcorp.com] provides support for the RTOS, and we get to look directly at their work, instead of getting a "black box" binary solution. Works very nicely. And we can make any changes we need directly. Very cool.

      So, yes, companies are starting to use Open Source in places that you may never hear of, or realize.

      -jerdenn
  • For cryin out loud, they have the DC-Linux Howto [linuxdevices.com] artical linked in the sidebar, but Dreamcast isn't even in their list of Linux devices! Oh the humanity.

  • Mydata Hydra-Speedmounting SMT machines... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I work with Mydata Electronic component Surface Mounting machines. I do belive that they even place "Linux Inside" stickers on the outside of these machines...

    Just think... A linux controlled machine, making motherboards for other Linux based computers. ;)

    Take that Bill Gate$...

  • They're might make money, but... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    As I see more and more commercial devices using Linux, it seems that in the old days they would have had to pay someone for their work in creating the operating system, but now they all get one for free. A nice one, at that; through the generosity (or whatever it is) of all the people who have contributed to Linux, it's a lot more desirable than a commercial competitor.

    But these companies are going to make money from these devices, and they're going to make even more money because they don't have to pay anyone for Linux.

    Cringley's Triumph of the Nerds showed us that it was never the initial creators of new technologies that made the money, it was those that exploited them. It feels that more and more people are going to use Linux to make money, without having to give anything "back", and those who created it are going to have at least their pride, but not the cash they arguably deserve.
  • NASA Personal Satellite Assistant?

    Why do I get the feeling that this is a Microsoft conspiracy ;-)
  • And I always thought k5 [kuro5hin.org] was "the other site"...
    J.
  • I often get flamed for stating that Linux has no place on the office desktop. It's a point that I truely believe. I still think Gnome and KDE are at least three major version releases behind the rest of the competition in this area, as are most, and nearly all or their support applications, including Star Office, which compares to MSOffice like Concordski compared to Concord.

    However, when it comes the embedded devices the Linux really shows so much promise. It's ability to run stablely in embedded devices and the ease to generate easy to use custom hardware interfaces is and area where Linux can take the leave and grab a market share across the planet.

    Linux on the Server, yes
    Linux Embedded, YES!!

    alas still, not on the Desktop.

  • space station (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nilstar ( 412094 )
    Don't forget about those wonderful gadgets running up on the international space station.... the article seems to forget about that... but look at http://www.sheflug.co.uk/featuresoft.htm for articles on things such as "control the docking of the ATV".
  • eOn Communication's eQueue [eoncc.com] is also Linux based.

  • For those who don't live in the Washington D.C. area, we recently had the Digital Edge Expo at the Convention Center [http]. Among other cool things (such as a virtual-reality rollercoaster and Nascar racing), they had the ActiveMedia robot [linuxdevices.com] running around on the floor next to the ComCast booths! I spent more time playing with it than asking questions about how to ran; had I known it was running Linux I would have definitely been more interested in what's under the hood.

    If you're interested in building a similair robot but don't have the money for an embedded-x86 architechture, take a look at the Basic Stamp [jameco.com] from Jameco. It's a great way to get started with your own embedded projects.

  • If I understand correctly - system is just closed in device, so I will never use it directly, I will never seen bash there. Then why should I care what operating system is inside? Are some devices more stable than others?
  • For awhile I was working as an automotive service technician. The coolest toy we had was the OTC Genisys. It's a handheld OBD-II scanner. Basically it plugs into a diagnostic connecter on your car, from which it gets all the information from your car's computer. It was a really sweet machine, running linux. It was much bigger than a handheld...I usually held it with 2 hands. It did have a nice screen. Also it had a lot of unused ports...like..pcmcia,thernet,infrared,etc.
    Here's a webpage:
    http://www.genisysotc.com/
    Not really a lot of information on that page, but it does have a picture to show ya how cool it looks.

  • A list of consumer devices that have a good price-performance ratio. In other words, devices that don't suck.

    I'm not saying by any means that any of these devices suck, but the rabid senseless drooling over linux-based products is unnecessary, IMO. Face it, gadgets that work and work well have a higher coolness factor than something with a penguin inside. Unless it's an uncontrollable whirling death machine. Then that would be pretty cool. Imagine that beady-eyed little penguin, breath smelling of herring, rampaging through the streets...

  • "personal satellite assistant", a must have. If only it could fly on earth. :-)

    http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8416393595.html [linuxdevices.com]
  • and one that you call can go buy today at your local beast buy...

    the Iomega HipZip MP3 player. - its a USB connectable mp3 player that uses the Iomega PocketZip (formerly known as the Clik!) disks which are 40 MB removable media (averaging about $10 for each disk)

    it runs lineo and is pretty neat as removable media MP3 players go. rechargable battery which is nice (unless you're going on a 10+ hour flight)

    the other really nice thing about this player is that if you are using pocketzips, the player plugs in and just becomes an external drive. so you can just copy the files onto the disk. no special programs needed!

  • Problem With Embedded Development on Linux (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Sunday October 07, 2001 @12:50PM (#2397761) Homepage Journal
    The Evil Satellite TV company that hired me to help work on a set-top box with Linux Embedded had a reasonably good idea about the hardware, although they DID change archetectures completely about 1/4th of the way through the development process. However, the department that was doing the software had no concept about developing for Linux. most of the development team were Windows programmers who barely even knew what a process was. Although the general idea was to use GTK for all the work on the system, the Windows programmers ended up hacking out a rudimentary UI library based on GDK. In practise, no GTK was ever in use there. Their UI library was inflexible and relied entirely on pixmaps and hotspots. Everything inherited from everything else; if you wanted to change interface behavior on just one screen, you'd have to change the entire system and add a new method. It was some of the ugliest coding I've ever seen anywhere (And I've been around.)

    Instead of sensibly using CVS, they required that version control be done using Microsoft Version Control software. They had an ancient version of VMware with I think 1 or 2 licenses (Certainly less than the number of developers using it.) and most developers rarely, if ever checked their code into version control. No developer system had exactly the same source code on it at any time. We ended up hacking a demo out by going from system to system picking up various pieces. By the time we were done, there were three or four different library versions on the demo box and it would only stay up 10-15 minutes before crashing and burning. That was enough to convince the VP that we had a workable product and that he shouldn't fire the entire department (Which would have gone a LONG way toward advancing that product.) I will be amazed if that set top box EVER sees the light of day.

    Lessons learned:

    1) Hire programmers who know your system.

    2) If the system provides developer's tools, use them.

    3) If you only have two programmers on your project who actually know the system and they tell you something isn't going to work, then that something is probably not going to work.

    4) Inquire about process and ask what CMM level they're at. If they look at you blankly, thank them for their time and tell them you'll call them. Then don't call them. Ever.

    5) Always check out a company's bathrooms during the interview process. Seriously. You can tell a lot about a company from its bathrooms. If it's not a bathroom you'd feel comfortable taking a dump in, chances are they guy you're talking to is full of shit.

    6) If a company is using C++ or Java, ask the lead programmer about Design Patterns and MVC. If he looks at you blankly, thank them for their time and tell them you'll call them. Then don't call them. Ever.

    7) If a company is doing Linux development and mandates the use of any Microsoft product on a regular basis, thank them for their time and tell them you'll call them. Then don't call them. Ever.

    8) Ask the lead programmer if you can see a function he's written from scratch recently. If the code has any of that hungarian notation crap or the function is longer than three or four pages, thank them for their time and tell them you'll call them. Then don't call them. Ever.

    9) If you think there's something major wrong with your process, don't slip into thinking that you can fix it. Unless you're the manager, you can't and chances are it's that broken because the manager's an idiot. Especially true if you start to realize the manager's an idiot. Start sending resumes at that point. Don't let them waste any more of your time. The Evil Satellite TV company wasted nearly a year of my life, and that's a year I'll never get back.

    I'm sure there are more, but those are the main ones.

  • Well i dont see a toilet.
    That means that if i have to p^&$#@iss on a penguin i have to go to the Antarctic!
  • Your hard work has just gone to make someone else money! :)

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