Linux in the Embedded World: How's It Doing?

So how is Linux doing in the embedded systems arena? According to a report from market research firm Venture Development Corporation, it's doing pretty darn well.

In the report entitled Linux in the Embedded Systems Market, compiled by VDC senior analyst Matt Volckmann, a significant number of embedded software and systems engineering teams are adopting Linux as their primary target OS. Furthermore, Volckmann's research suggests that this migration may be lasting, as the majority of current Linux users surveyed plan to use Linux again as their primary operating system on future projects.

When asked about the primary OS planned for the next project, 71 percent of the respondents said Linux (free distribution), 16 percent said Linux (paid distribution), 12 percent said commercial OS, and 1 percent said in-house, roll-your-own OS.

Volckmann says that Linux remains an attractive OS of choice for a number of reasons, including royalty free run-time costs, advanced networking capabilities, and technical features, the large base of engineers familiar with Linux, as well as many other factors.

"Linux has proven itself to be well suited for a wide range of applications across various industries, and continues to gain market share, despite not being particularly well matched for certain embedded applications types," says Volckmann. "Changes in the way that systems are designed will also allow Linux to continue to penetrate into segments of the market where the lack of capability was previously perceived as a barrier."

A more complex question, says Volckmann, is how opportunities for commercial solution suppliers will progress given the promise of more widespread Linux adoption in the embedded market. Currently, a most Linux projects do not obtain their Linux distributions from commercial suppliers. However, innovation within embedded Linux to date has relied heavily on support from commercial suppliers like MontaVista and others to make Linux a more viable operating system option within the embedded market. "At the root of most of the challenges faced by commercial suppliers is the question of how to bring significant additional value to an operating system that is freely available, continually improving, increasingly supported by embedded system/component suppliers, and in demand from companies interested in decreasing their overall development costs and/or bill of materials," says Volckmann.

While Linux has found its way into a number of embedded industries, VCD thinks one of the key opportunities for Linux over the next several years will be in the mobile phone market. I might be able to find out the flip side of that issue, as I'll be at the Symbian Smartphone conference next week. Symbian might have a different take on the idea. I'll let you know.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 11:33 AM  Permalink