[Sussex] Sky boxen / Embeded LINUX and NT

[Steve Dobson]

Geoff

On 27 September 2002 at 09:29 Geoff Teale said:
<snip>
> How can we be sure that LINUX in embedded space isn't a lame 
> duck just like Windows?

1/. Linux source is peer reviewed.  This gives better quality.
Would you release source code that was badly written for the 
world to read?

2/. Linux is driver by technical goals not by commercial needs.
Look at the time between major releases of Linux to WindowOS.
Does anyone not see that announcing that the next OS (in '93?)
that the next OS will be called Windows95 doesn't put a 
commercial pressure on the OS developers to release in '95
regardless of it bug status.

3/. Linux is one source that just scales real well.
WinCE is not the same beast as Win2K, WinXP.  My evidence
is that Word for WinCE is not (from what I've here - I've
never used it) 100% compatible with Word for Win95/NT/2K/XP.
If it's not the same beast then it has different bugs, 
different developers, ...  The fact that one source is used
for IBM/UP/Sun big iron and for miniPC controller in your
car means that a bug fix in one place is fix for all.

4/. Linux has the bigger development team.  Never have so
many people worked on just the one project.  Read "Just
For Fun".

5/. Linux is a well (technical) designed OS.  Only the kernel
runs in protected mod.  Applications in there on virtual 
space (thanks to the MMU).  As a result only a bug in the
kernel will take the whole machine out - even on embedded
devices.  I would guess that to get performance out of WinCE
any "performance" hack was used.  The protected/user mode
context switch is expensive (in CPU).  In Linux (a macro- 
kernel) less of these context switches are required.  With
all the message passing that the different subsystem in 
a micro-kernel (Win?? and iMac are micro-kernels) will 
require more of these context switches.

Before Neil and the other iMac lovers flame me I would point
out the Neil did use the word "now" when we were talking 
about OS performance last night.

Well Geoff, there's my 5p worth.

Steve