Greg Haerr is CEO of Century Software and founder of the Microwindows project, a GUI/windowing solution for embedded systems and devices. In this interview, Haerr relates how he came to be working with embedded Linux, explains why he created Microwindows, offers a brief comparison between Microwindows and alternative embedded GUIs, contemplates the future of Microwindows, and offers his perspective on… open source.

“My involvement with Linux goes back to 1993, to one of the first 386 distributions, Yggadrisil. I remember that this distribution came with a boot floppy and a CD, which was new for the time. On bootup, the system ran the UMSDOS filesystem which allowed Linux to run on top of the MS-DOS system's free space, and then proceeded to run X Windows, display a login prompt, and play the theme to Star Trek . . . “

“Why run Linux on embedded devices? In my estimation, there are at least four compelling reasons that show that Linux will continue to grow extremely rapidly in the next decade . . .”

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