[ale] any ALE members familiar with embedded linux?

[Christopher Fowler]

On Mon, Nov 03, 2003 at 07:02:24PM -0500, Christopher Bergeron wrote:
> If so, can I ask you a few questions about embedded linux systems and
> how they differ from a normal linux kernel?
> 
> Specifically, I'm wondering about BlueCat and Embedix.... do they just
> offer packages that let you trim stuff out of the kernel, or is there
> more to embedded linux in general that I'm missing?  I don't necessarily
> need real-time OS, but I'm moving into the embedded realm.

I've tried some of these and never could get into them.  All my work
is for x86 based devices.  Maybe for other arcs you would need a 
toolkit like these.

I worked with one company on a product they were developing.  I started from
nothing and they started with RH.  In the end their disti was 128megs.  Mine
was 8.  They were also getting nailed on some of their bandwidth usage in
their stores.  There were certain restrictions in placed for applications.
I can't tell yuo who they are but they have these devices in stores all
over the country.  I can say the are Linux based Kiosk devices.

I guess I can say there are 2 approaches to embedded design.  The first one
is to take a distribution and cut it apart.  This yields a disti with very
little custom code.  The 2nd is what I believe is the best way.  Look
at Linux as a kernel that gives you POSIX and hardware support.  This means
there is a lot of custom code.  In my project I have 150,000+ lines 
of custom code.  It is small because we invested much of our code in
libraries to keep the applications simple.  There is nothing that
those toolkits could have provided me.  I tried Lineo years ago and it
seemed to be a stripped down version of a Linux distribution.


> 
> Are there any embedded-linux specific mailing lists of note that I
> should join?

http://www.linuxdevices.com

> 
> Thanks for any insights...
> -CB
> 
> 
> 
> 
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