Survey: Embedded Developers Prefer Linux
According to a recent online survey, about half of all embedded system developers choose the Linux operating system.
This is a result of a reader survey by the trade journal EE Times. The survey was performed anonymously and online in October and November of this year. The results indicate that 49 percent of all participants will be using Linux as an embedded operating system in future projects. Some 15 percent prefer a commercial variant, and 14 percent use in-house developments. The remaining 22 percent do not use a genuine operating system for their projects.
The basic trend confirms the results of a survey by market researchers Venture Development Corporation (VDC) in early October which indicated that some 40 percent of developers are using Linux as the operating system for current projects, and that 87 percent are looking to move to the free operating system for future projects. However, in the VDC survey almost twice as many respondents said that they currently worked on commercial operating systems (39 percent), although only 12 percent wanted to keep it.
There was also a major discrepancy with respect to internal solutions. The VDC analysis reported just seven percent, which is half of the EE Times result, and with a falling tendency. All told, the participants in the online survey confirm the trend of moving to Linux, however, figures from current assessments by analysts show major discrepancies. As respondents in the survey were simply asked to click on the homepage of the online publication, the results can be expected to be less reliable.
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