In recent weeks, we’ve seen yet another FUD campaign from the RTOS players slinging mud around about the state of embedded Linux.

You can read my official response to that here. Kenton Williston also makes some interesting points here. But the debate brings up another issue I want to discuss.

For years, I’ve been saying an old phrase that goes, “You can’t hide from Linux.” If you look at the RTOS guys, ten years ago they were saying things like:

“Oh, you can’t use Linux at all.”

“It’s too slow.”

“It’s too big.”

“It’s not real time.”

“It’s written by 16 year olds.”

“It’s written by communists.”

Over the years, we’ve heard them all before, and we’ve blown all of those arguments away.

Now the RTOS guys are in a steady retreat from the onslaught of Linux, and from the looks of things, they’re starting to get desperate. We’re getting into the last bastions. They’ll say things like, “Well ok Linux can be used in set top boxes, but it will never be used in battery operated devices.”

Well, we knocked that one out the next year with millions of (battery operated) cell phones.

“Well, it can never be used in medical instruments.”

Again, that statement is untrue. We never made a lot of noise about it, but MontaVista Linux is in certified medical devices.

“Well, it will never be used in avionics.”

Wrong again. We are in avionics that also require certification.

My point is that there’s no place to hide. It’s just a matter of time. We’ve proven it. Just go back and look at the statements where the doubters have argued that Linux couldn’t be used, and we’ve just knocked them all down.

The RTOS players can fear monger all they want, but the truth remains the same. You can’t hide from Linux.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Embedded Linux.