“Perhaps Midori’s greatest potential is as the basis for an open
Embedded Linux distribution standard. Most of what is necessary for
such a distribution standard is present in Midori. The MLZ package
system allows for applying patches appropriate for embedded systems
to desktop-oriented packages. And the packages included in the
current Midori distribution form a useful basis for a wide variety
of embedded systems.”
“Midori is (sensibly, I think) not targeted toward the lowest
end of the embedded system market. It uses mostly standard Linux
packages, not going to extremes to minimize space requirements.
Thus it uses lightly patched versions of the kernel, glibc, and
XFree86. The most notable exception is the use of busybox, a
package started by Bruce Perens (and currently supported by Lineo)
which saves space by combining many standard Linux utilities (ls,
cat, etc.) into a single executable and eliminating their more
obscure options; this simple expediency saves substantial overhead
— busybox is itself becoming a standard package for
small-footprint Linux systems.”
“Space savings are achieved by careful selection of only those
packages that are appropriate for embedded systems, rather than by
creating custom minimized versions of those packages. This a good
policy for an Embedded Linux distribution, because it allows for
updating the system with new versions of its component packages
without having to maintain extensive nonstandard patches. “