“Linux is getting smaller.”
“Not in terms of market share, mind you. Physically smaller.
In a trend which marks a departure of sorts from the Unix and
large-scale computing roots of Linux, manufacturers of all kinds of
small and even tiny devices are embracing Linux as the embedded
operating system of choice. It could well be that in the
future, rather than using Linux on the desktop, we’ll all be using
Linux on the palmtop.”
“The most recent evidence for this is the July 13th move by a
host of major Japanese technology companies, among them Fujitsu,
Hitachi, Mitsubishi, NEC, and Toshiba, toward embedded Linux. The
Embedded Linux Consortium of Japan, or EMBLIX marks the creation of
yet another engine to drive the development and use of embedded
Linux. One similar consortium in the US currently enjoys the
support of such giants as Motorola and IBM.”