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[Johnny Stork]

IMHO, one of my beleifs is that Linux and OSS will play a significant and major role in the growing world of smart/embedded devices especially in the "smart" home. Below is a slide show from MS on their vision of these trends "smart devices, smart home etc" and although I agree completely that these things are "in the pipe" and that SOAP, XML, DB's, platform-independance etc will play a role, the part that MS has wrong is the software/application/architecture behind it all. It ABSOLUTELY and WILL NOT be a propietory system and if these devices do become as ubiquitous as our phones, microwaves and fridges, then it can ONLY work with open, reliable and extensible systems (how long do you think people would live with a microwave that is controlled by an MS OS and stops working in ?? years, or when you change the tray 3 times (just an example, albeit weak). Or if you dont pay your annual dues to MS for the OS licence's...yeah right.) Anyway, I know that some people on this list would rather treat MS with contempt, or simply ignore or bash them, the FACT is that at least right now the end-user world of PC's (98% at latest guess), and the Server World (around 40% I beleive is close) is still MS based so it would be foolish and dangerous to simply discount this. And please, no comments on the public stats (I am/was a statistician) and I realize that most of these numbers come from "shipping versions" of commercial licences and does not accurately relfect the true state of affairs on Linux use. We can all learn not from Microsft's misstakes, their successes and especially when they "bet the farm" on a "vision" of the future. These gambles by such a huge and influential company can help the OSS and Linux community to recognise where to focus and direct efforts. Rememeber this is a company with 40 billion cash in the bank and who makes millions each day and have the largest number of PH'd and millionaire employees than any company in the world (I think). Anyway, sorry about the length of this....just wanted to raise some discussion on embedded linux, smart devices and future technology trends where Linux is/can play a role. OSnews.com: "WindowsForDevices.com has obtained an exclusive copy of the powerpoint slides used in the keynote presentation at Microsoft's 3rd annual Windows Embedded Developer Conference at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Also, according to data recently compiled by Evans Data Corp (EDC), Windows and Linux are running neck-and-neck in terms of developer use for future projects." Slideshow (Powerpoint): http://www.windowsfordevices.com./files/article001/index.html OS's used for embedded dev: http://www.windowsfordevices.com./articles/AT7814535685.html ________________________________________ Johnny Stork Calgary, AB Canada Open Solutions Open Source & Linux Solutions for Business http://www.open-solutions.ca Academic Computers http://www.academic-computers.com