Monday, April 21, 2008

It’s not just about Linux: Open Source Continues to Gain Momentum in Embedded Market

Natick, Massachusetts – April 21, 2008 – Preliminary results from VDC’s 2008 Embedded Systems Engineering Survey suggest that 23% of embedded systems engineering teams are using an open source operating system on their current development project. A growing portion of embedded engineers also expect to use an open source operating system going forward.

Linux (GNU/Linux) remains the leading choice among embedded operating system types. With more than 18% of respondents reporting its use on their current project, Linux's share is greater than any individual open source or commercial operating system type. However, other open source operating system choices are also popular among embedded engineering teams, including eCos, BSD, FreeRTOS, TinyOS, and others.



VDC continues to see higher rates of adoption of GNU and Eclipse-based tools and other open source software as well as systems manufacturers and development teams are drawn to the control, flexibility, and cost advantages that open source software can provide. In an effort to more broadly support their customers, greater numbers of solution providers are incorporating open source technology into their offerings and VDC expects over all use of open source software to continue to increase within the embedded systems engineering space. This trend will continue to present a key challenge to commercial software vendors’ employing more traditional business models, and their success over the long term will likely depend on their ability to adapt to the changing competitive landscape.

These findings are part of a larger survey of embedded system project and engineering demographics and trends. VDC's 2008 global embedded systems survey is currently available to embedded systems engineers interested in partcipating and all survey participants will gain access to a summary of VDC's 2007 prior year results and receive a summary of the 2008 survey data once it is complete.

The survey can be accessed at:
http://www.vdc-corp.com/08esdt/?RID=B

VDC also specifically explores these and other critical issues for embedded Linux software solutions within the recently released report TRACK 1: OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN EMBEDDED SYSTEMS, VOLUME 1: LINUX of VDC’s 2008 Embedded Software Market Intelligence Service.

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