According to a “quick survey” taken during the past two weeks of visitors to LinuxDevices.com's website, developers overwhelmingly believe that the Embedded Linux Consortium's recently released embedded Linux platform specification is valuable, and that it will help accelerate the growing use of Linux in embedded systems and devices.

LinuxDevices.com surveyed developers to gauge their reactions following the announcement by the Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) of the release of the ELC Platform Specification (ELCPS), Version 1.0.

Among the interesting findings from the poll are . . .

• Over 80% believe the ELCPS is “very” or “somewhat” valuable (45% and 38%, respectively)
• Two-thirds feel the existence of the ELCPS standard will accelerate the proliferation of Linux in embedded systems and devices
• Over three-fifths report that ELCPS compliance or certification would influence their choice of an operating system for an embedded project
• Nearly two-thirds would want the OS they develop for a project to be ELCPS compliant or certified

Additionally, in a question about what developers feel the main benefit(s) of the ELCPS are, in which multiple selections were allowed, 44% of the participants selected “portability among multiple Linux versions,” 21% selected “portability among multiple OSes, beyond just Linux,” and 21% selected “additional API functions.”

As to whether or not the ELC should add application- or market-specific APIs to the ELPS standard, the results were mixed, with 41% responding yes, 38% no, and 22% no opinion. There also was not a lot of consistency in what those APIs ought to cover, although real-time extensions received the highest vote, at 14%. (Interestingly, less than 3% selected “none needed or wanted.”)

“The ELC is gratified that more than two-thirds of responders think we're doing the right thing with the ELCPS,” commented ELC executive director Murry Shohat. “These results are very favorable and should encourage all of us to accelerate ongoing development of ELCPS.”

“Since most of the respondents were developers, the results send a clear message: Linux is a safe long term choice for embedded projects,” Shohat added.

“The poll question about which API's should be pursued yielded nothing definitive,” observed Shohat. “The ELC will gather extensive member and community input to determine where to put our API-centric standards effort. This is the top agenda item for our next Board meeting.”

The online survey was conducted over a 10-day period from Feb. 21 through Mar. 3, 2003 and had 125 participants. Approximately three-fourths of those who participanted indicated that they have already used Linux in an embedded project, and over 95% said they expect to use it in a future project. Three-fourths classified themselves as developers.

The full results from the survey are available here.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.