Linux remains the most popular embedded OS, according to data from a recent CMP survey of electronics trade journal readers and Embedded Systems Conference attendees. However, a comparison of 2005 and 2006 survey data shows “open-source enthusiasm waning,” Embedded Systems Design (ESD) editor-in-chief Jim Turley suggests.

CMP's annual survey was completed by about 1,200 respondents this year, with respondents equally divided between ESD subscribers, ESC attendees, and select EE Times readers involved in embedded development.

Seventy-one percent, or 852 respondents, reported using an operating system in their projects. Of OS-using respondents, 16 percent reported actively using a non-commercial version of Linux or another open source OS, while another roughly 12 percent reported actively using a commercial Linux distribution. Thus, among OS users, about 28 percent reported actively using Linux, making it the top embedded OS overall, counting both commercial and non-commercial Linux users.

Turley does not give comparable figures for the percentage of OS-using respondents using other popular embedded OSes. However, he does note that about half of all OS-using respondents — 51 percent — report using commercial OSes, and that among that half, 26 percent use VxWorks, 18 percent use Windows XP, and 18 percent use Windows CE. Multiplying each of these percentages by 51 percent thus enables comparison to Linux's 28 percent share of use among OS-using respondents.

In other words, Linux is first, with 28 percent, followed by VxWorks, with 13 percent, followed by Windows XP and Windows CE in a tie for third, each with nine percent of OS-using respondents, as illustrated in the following graph.

Percent share of use among OS-using respondents
(Data source: CMP Media 2006 survey results)
Among OS-using respondents reportedly using a commercial embedded OS, on the other hand, commercially-supplied embedded Linux placed second, with about 12 percent of respondents, just behind VxWorks (13 percent), but ahead of Windows XP embedded (nine percent) and Windows CE (nine percent). In that match-up, Microsoft could be considered to be the top commercial embedded OS vendor, with its embedded OSes accounting for the top share (18 percent) when combined under the “Windows Embedded” umbrella.

Interestingly, embedded Linux overall — the combination of both noncommercial and commercial sources — was less dominant than in similar surveys administered by CMP in years past. In 2005, some 37 percent of all OS-using respondents reported using embedded Linux, versus 28 percent this year. And, while last year 43 percent said they planned to embed Linux in the future, this year only 36 percent did.

Turley characterizes these declines as “waning enthusiasm” and “disillusionment” with Linux. However, the results of LinuxDevices.com's own reader survey, published last week, and completed by 853 respondents, suggest that actual and projected Linux use among our readers are both still growing (as is our readership) — although we did note a leveling off from periods of rapid growth in the early part of the decade, and that actual use is catching up with projected use

The divergence between CMP's and LinuxDevices.com's results likely reflect biases built into each survey's respondent pools.

LinuxDevices.com's OS use trend observations are repeated here:

2006 LinuxDevices survey result: Which OSes have been in your (company's) embedded designs during the past two years?

2006 LinuxDevices survey result: Actual and planned Linux use may converge by decade's end

Turley's analysis of CMP's survey data can be found here.

LinuxDevices.com's 2006 Embedded Linux Market Survey data analysis can be found here.

 
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