I always love the story behind the story. DSO software vendor (and DSO.com sponsor) Wind River yesterday announced version 2.4 of its Workbench suite of open-source, Eclipse-based software-development tools, and version 6.2 of its VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS). (For more details on the announcement, see our recent news story.)
Behind the announcement is continued strong demand for proprietary RTOSes like VxWorks. According to research from Venture Development Corp. that Wind River has been sharing with both market analysts and the press, exactly half of all DSO sales last year went to proprietary RTOSes and associated products, with the rest split between commercial Linux and in-house development. Linux's share is growing, of course, and in-house development is shrinking. But proprietary RTOSes are holding steady, growing at the same 16 percent to 20 percent a year as the rest of the DSO market, the numbers show. That means proprietary RTOSes will again account for 50 percent of the DSO market this year.
Why isn't Linux completely dominating the market? Several reasons. The military doesn't trust the open nature of Linux, so projects are hard to certify. Makers of high-security devices still don't trust Linux completely, either. And for projects where system availability and device-specific configurations are key, proprietary RTOSes still rule.
What do you think? Will Linux dominate the DSO market anytime soon? Use the comments field below to share your thoughts and opinions.
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