“In no area is this improvement more significant than for
PDAs, a market for which Linux currently seems stunningly
appropriate. Here is a market in which connectivity with desktop
computers is important, so mature and stable networking support is
a necessity. The presence of a GUI virtually defines what a PDA is,
so good GUI support is also important. Current retail prices for
PDAs are in the low hundreds of US dollars, a price range that
allows designing in RAM, flash, and processing power sufficient to
support Linux well.“
“On the other hand, the market is sufficiently price sensitive
that most manufacturers find it onerous to pay even a token royalty
to Microsoft or Palm for the use of an OS. Yet using a low-end or
home-brew OS, in an attempt to target cheaper hardware, is simply
out of the question — the market is moving too fast for the longer
design cycles that would result.”
“In short, all signs now point to embedded Linux, as a platform
for today’s increasingly sophisticated PDAs.”