NetBSD is an excellent operating system... but there are some improvments to
make it fit better in the embedded space:
1. Journaled flash file system
2. Ability to enable very small kernel configurations ( this exists somewhat
today )
3. Multithreading (native pthreads support)
4. BSD equivalent of Redboot

Kyle

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erik E. Fair [mailto:fair@clock.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 6:34 PM
> To: Wojciech Puchar
> Cc: Kamal R Prasad; tech-kern@netbsd.org
> Subject: Re: NetBSD usage in embedded environments
> 
> 
> Some years ago, a friend of mine mentioned that he was using NetBSD 
> for an embedded consumer device. I thought he was nuts, and asked, 
> "Why a full blown OS instead of some smaller real-time thing?"
> 
> He replied, "because a megabyte of RAM only costs $1."
> 
> His point was that NetBSD (aside from being cheap itself) doesn't use 
> all that many resources on a price per resource basis in the modern 
> world, and it gives you the full flexibility of a complete UNIX 
> system kernel for your device. Naturally, his device was using flash 
> so that they could upgrade functionality in the field.
> 
> It's good to want your software to be as small and efficient as 
> possible. Most good software engineers want that. However, you should 
> never forget that in business, there is a diminishing return to that 
> effort, and there will be a point beyond which the businessman will 
> simply say, "You're taking too long to shrink that/make it 
> faster/more efficient/etc. Let's just throw hardware at the problem 
> to make it go away."
> 
> 	a datapoint,
> 
> 	Erik <fair@clock.org>
>