[ Thanks to LinuxDevices.com for this
link. ]
“Linux vs. Windows. It’s a battle fought on many fronts. While a
worldwide legion of Linux developers has successfully mounted a
frontal attack on Microsoft’s WinNT in the servers, routers,
firewalls, and telecommunications markets, the open-source
community has quietly set its sites on another of Microsoft’s three
OSes: WinCE — the Windows operating system for handheld and
embedded devices.”
“Taking on WinCE posed two distinct challenges. First, it was
necessary to strip Linux down to a size that fits the constrained
resources of embedded systems. Fortunately, this was easy thanks to
the inherent modularity, flexibility, and configurability of Linux.
Add to that, the availability of Linux source code and thousands of
programmers eager to apply it to the requirements of a myriad of
embedded applications. The result is a wide range of “small
footprint” embedded Linux implementations, which include: Embedix,
ETLinux, LEM, Linux Router Project, LOAF, uCLinux, muLinux,
ThinLinux, FirePlug Linux, and PizzaBox Linux (see
www.linuxdevices.com/links/).”
“The second challenge for Linux to overcome, to successfully
grab the embedded market away from WinCE, was the need for an
easy-to-use and easy-to-embed graphical user interface (GUI).
Until now, a truly embeddable full-function open-source GUI for
Linux just wasn’t available. But all that is now changing, as a
result of the growing functionality and availability of
Microwindows — an open-source project aimed at bringing the
features of modern graphical windowing environments to Linux based
embedded devices.”