It's the beginning of Round Four in this knock-down, drag-out battle between Windows and Linux for the hearts and minds of developers building gadgets like smartphones, PDAs, firewalls, and consumer entertainment equipment. Before we get underway, let's catch up on action from the first three rounds.

Looking at the judge's scoresheet from Round One, you'll see that Windows landed about twice as many punches as Linux in the realm of PDAs and other handhelds, while delivering three times the body blows as Linux in mobile phones. At the same time, Linux outpaced Windows in audio/video equipment jabs by a healthy 4:1 margin, and dealt it a real piledriver in gateway/server devices. Round 1 scorecard: Linux 178, Windows 175.

Moving on to Round Two, despite some fancy footwork on both sides, the relative standing of the two embedded OSes remained about even. Windows continued to own the mat when it came to PDAs; and while both OSes moved forward in the mobile phone arena, Windows held on to its 3:1 edge. Meanwhile, Linux increased its advantage in gateway/firewall devices, and maintained its audio/video superiority. Also, in VoIP devices, newly broken out as a separate category, Windows and Linux were in a standoff, each showing up in the same number of devices. Round 2 scorecard: Windows 247, Linux 243.

Then, in Round Three, which ended six month ago, Windows kicked an already trampled competitor 15 times to zero in the PDA department. Linux struck back in mobile phones, though, with eight haymakers versus two, while outjabbing Windows 10 to three in audio/video devices. Meanwhile, Windows out-maneuvered its opponent four to naught in tablets/webpads and slammed Linux 14 to 10 in thin clients, while Linux continued to pummel Windows in gateways/servers/APs, chalking up 27 new design wins in an area where Windows doesn't even have its own category. Finally, in the area of “other,” Linux landed 12 blows to four for Windows. Round 3 scorecard: Windows 290, Linux 313.

But wait — our contestants are just now making their way towards the ring… the crowd is going wild…!!

And so it is with great pleasure that we present . . .

 
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