Embedded Linux suppliers under pressure

Recently published research by

Venture Development Corporation

(VDC) indicates increasing

adoption of Linux in embedded system

development projects. However, suppliers

of branded commercial embedded Linux

solutions will continue to be challenged in

differentiating their Linux solutions from

what is publicly available and demonstrating

real value in order to maintain a premium

for their products and support.

According to Stephen Balacco, Director

of VDC’s Embedded Software Practice,

“While some OEMs have chosen to use

a commercial Linux solution, more are

using and/or expect to use a publicly

available Linux solution in future project

development. It is this trend that will

continue to put pressure on commercial

Linux suppliers to provide value above

and beyond the growing sophistication of

publicly available Linux solutions.”

Linux developers can make use of

a wide range of publicly existing device

drivers, design systems using the latest

communication protocols, supplement

existing platforms with technology leveraged

from the enterprise Linux domain, and

enjoy royalty-free production licensing.

Experience counts

As internal development teams gain

more Linux experience, the threat from

OEMs migrating to a “roll-your-own”

(RYO) open-source solution is expected to

increase faster than adoption of commercial

Linux solutions, especially among larger

OEMs who can afford to fund the upfront

engineering and maintenance and support

of an internal Linux solution. Similarly,

smaller OEMs with limited budgets

look to open-source Linux as a more sophisticated RYO solution with support

from the open source community.

From VDC’s perspective, commercial

Linux suppliers will need to continue

to focus on product development and

integration challenges by moving up

the value chain from just supplying a

Linux OS distribution to offering

increased efficiency to the

development process by providing

high-quality development tools,

middleware, Linux platforms and

application level solutions, and

other resources that support Linuxbased

engineering.

According to Balacco, “In this way, OEMs

can focus on their core competencies, the

competition, and profitability in bringing

new products to market faster, within

development budgets.”