"Thanks to tech like Moblin and Android, netbooks, smartbooks,
and smartphones are all the rage right now for consumers, but Linux
is also showing up on the very sales counters where all of these
devices are being bought.
"While there's no denying the rise of Linux on these consumer
systems, there's been a rather quiet but steady rise in Linux
deployments on point-of-service (or point-of-sale) systems.
"Retail systems are an interesting niche for Linux... one where
the free operating system has historically done well. The demands
of POS machines--24/7 availability and environments where they are
sometimes exposed to large fluxuations in temperature and
humidity--means they need an OS that is more stable than what
Microsoft and Apple can traditionally offer."
