Starting Out

You are about to begin working on your next project, and this time, it is going to run Linux. What should you think about before you put finger to keyboard? Let’s begin with a high-level look at embedded Linux and see why it is popular, what the implications of open source licenses are, and what kind of hardware you need to run it.

Linux first became a viable choice for embedded devices around 1999. That was when AXIS released the 2100 Network Camera and TiVo released their first Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Both were the first Linux-powered devices in their category. Since 1999, Linux has become increasingly popular to the point that today it is the Operating System (OS) of choice for many classes of product. In 2024, there were over three billion devices running Linux. That includes all the smartphones running Android, which uses a Linux kernel, and hundreds of millions of set-top boxes, smart TVs, and Wi-Fi routers. We must not forget other devices, such as vehicle diagnostics, industrial equipment, and medical monitoring units, that ship in smaller volumes.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Choosing Linux
• When not to choose Linux
• Meeting the players
• Moving through the project life cycle
• Navigating open source
• Selecting hardware for embedded Linux
• Obtaining the hardware for this book
• Provisioning your development environment