Reader Myddrin wrote
in with this link and some commentary of his own:
Myddrin writes:
I’ve looked at this about five different times, and still so no
supporting evidence for the final claim. It explicitly contradicts
earlier statments in the article. The primary reason is that
embedded operating systems–no matter how good they are–don’t take
off. The market is a vendor market, not a consumer market. If the
buying vendor already has an appliance or any computing product
that requires an embedded operating system, it will need a strong
reason to change its embedded operating system.
So why would appliances entrenched with Linux (as is predicted
by the article) suddenly up and switch to Windows? Either, there is
additional material at Tech Republic which may help explain or we
REALLY need to start concentrating on critical thinking skills in
our educational institutions.
From the item on CNET:
“Microsoft is well placed to capture the high end of the appliance
market, where devices may need more functions and flexibility.
While the “old” appliance market was relatively static, the growing
appliance market will be more dynamic, require the ability to
handle a broader set of services (even if the operating system is
embedded), and may need the ability for online changes in function
and customization. Those requirements are better tackled by a
general-purpose embedded operating system, such as Windows and
Linux.”
“Linux will likely do better in products where cost,
performance, size of the software or significant customization of
the operating system are critical…”
“…Early on, the conditions of the “new” appliance market will
tend to favor Linux. As the appliance market matures and moves
upstream, Windows will capture more opportunities.”