Thanks to Robert
Whitinger for this link.
“And like Microsoft (whose Windows-CE is an aspiring
embedded-system), they have a problem. In the PC world that problem
is an operating system called Linux (see “For the love of
hacking”). Unlike Windows, Linux is “open-source” code-free to
everyone. It is the creation of hackers who think that you can make
better software if you toss it into the public domain so that other
hackers can tinker with it and improve it.”
“Although there are more than 10 million Linux users, most folks
in Silicon Valley look askance at free software. Not unreasonably,
they ask: How can you make money from something that you give
away?”
“Privately held Cygnus Solutions thinks it has the answer. Best
known for its Linux tool kit, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cygnus
unveiled last November an open-source embedded operating system
called Ecos (Embedded Cygnus Operating System). General purpose in
design, the software can be shoehorned into as few as 600 bytes of
memory or (for complex products like big-ticket industrial
controls) deliver 50 megabytes worth of operating system
horsepower.”