Free Beer vs. Free Speech

Why do developers want to use open-source software, and Linux, in embedded systems?

Throughout 2000, LinuxDevices.com
conducted a survey of developers to try to understand their
motivations for using Linux in embedded systems and intelligent
devices. Some of the most interesting results are in the areas of
reasons for wanting to use open-source software and the perceived
strengths and advantages of Linux.

You might think the simple answer would be “Because it's
free.” Not so!

What Do You Value Most about Open
Source?

Here, developers were asked to select their first, second and
third reasons for using open-source software in embedded
applications from these choices:

Each of the selected reasons was weighted according to
whether it was designated most important (5 points), second most
important (3 points), or third most important (1 points). Then, the
results were combined and normalized such that the top reason ended
up with a score of 1.0. Figure 1 shows the results.

Figure 1. Results of Open-Source Developers
Survey

These results are intriguing in several respects. First, the
popular notion of programmers hacking away at source code to create
custom versions of Linux was not borne out by the survey. Instead,
developers place a high value on having source code as a way to
avoid being held hostage to proprietary OS providers. Also, having
source code makes it much easier to find out what's going on inside
the system. Choices like “so I can modify the software” and “so
I can fix bugs” did receive a fair number of votes, but in the
overall scheme of things, these ended up at the bottom of the
list.

Interestingly, the reason that topped the list was “the
collaborative open-source development process produces superior
software”. What's especially significant about this finding is
that it's not something that proprietary software vendors can
emulate without fundamentally altering their business
models—something they are highly unlikely to do.

Other Reasons for Liking Linux

The survey also asked developers to identify their main
reasons for wanting to use Linux in embedded applications. Here,
the respondents were asked to check all of the reasons they felt
were important from among the following:

No runtime royalties.

Source code is available (and free).

It's not from Microsoft.

Linux has excellent networking support.

There are more drivers and tools available.

Lots of programmers are familiar with Linux.

Linux is more robust/reliable.

Other.

Figure 2 shows the results.

Figure 2. Reasons for Using Linux in Embedded
Applications

Free Beer vs. Free Speech

One particularly intriguing result is that, despite the
obvious cost-sensitivity of embedded devices, the “free speech”
aspect of Linux (i.e., source code is available) edged out “free
beer” (i.e., no royalties) as the primary reason developers are
looking at embedding Linux in their designs.

To delve a bit deeper into the cost issue, we asked a pair of
questions related to costs: “Would you consider paying for Linux
development/support services?” and “Would you consider paying
per-unit royalties?” The results appear in Figures 3 and 4. (Note:
the second question was added more recently, so the results shown
here are based on a relatively small sample of data.)

Figure 3. Would you pay for Linux
development/support services?

Figure 4. Would you pay per-unit
royalties?

What we learn from the results is that while embedded
developers are indeed prepared to invest money in outside services
and support for embedded Linux (68% said yes and only 13% said no),
the numbers are nearly flip-flopped when the question is
willingness to pay royalties (51% said no and only 21% said
yes).

I suspect some of the suppliers of embedded Linux software
and services will find these results “interesting”--to say the
least!

Rick Lehrbaum
(rick@linuxdevices.com) created the LinuxDevices.com “embedded
Linux portal”, which recently became part of the ZDNet Linux
Resource Center. Rick has worked in the field of embedded systems
since 1979. He cofounded Ampro Computers, founded the PC/104
Consortium and was instrumental in launching the Embedded Linux
Consortium.