Linux-compatible single board computer

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 10:07:34AM -0400, Gordon Marx wrote:
>     * FreeBSD The most powerful x86 open source Unix
>     * OpenBSD The most secure open source Unix available
>     * NetBSD The most portable open source Unix available
>     * Linux The most popular open source Unix"

Interesting list.

> It seems to me that they'll at least support you bringing up some form
> of Linux on the thing...whether it's your distro of choice or not is
> anyone's guess.

My guess is that if you send an e-mail saying you can't bring up Red
Hat Linux, they will shake their heads, mutter something about your
not understanding embedded software, and give you some version of the
brushoff.

If, however, you are actually doing embedded work, are booting a
kernel, and some device isn't working right, they will mutter that
they were suspicious there was a bug there, read your e-mail carefully
hoping to learn something, and maybe help you out.  But supporting
embedded engineering is not a bounded project, unless you pay them
lots of money there will be serious limits to the support you receive.

There is a difference between embedded and user computing and usually
the terms "distribution" and "embedded Linux" are oxymoronic to mix.
Embedded means you are crafting what is on your box and no
distribution (with the possible exception of something from, say,
Montavista) can have already done that crafting for you.  (Even
Montavista is selling you a product that merely helps you with that
very detailed customizing as opposed to installing all the stuff a
general purpose distribution includes.  Heck, Montavista maybe already
supports these boards.)

As embedded boards become more capable it is tempting to put a big,
general purpose distribution on it, but beware of the bugs in the bits
you aren't actively using, and beware of the maintenance problems from
having so much software installed in your "appliance".


-kb, the Kent who would rather his appliances include as much software
as necessary and no more.