Re: [ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Gary Thomas <gthomas at redhat dot com>]

On 28-Jan-00 Grant Edwards wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 28, 2000 at 09:27:33AM -0600, Tim Michals wrote:
> 
>> Since Cygnus was bought Redhat, will eCOS exist?  Will all
>> efforts be towards embedded Linux?
> 
> I hope not.  eCos and embedded Linux have almost nothing in
> common other than they're both open-source operating systems.
> 
> Embedded Linux and and eCos do not compete with each other.
> 

Actually we expect both to continue to exist, and hopefully, thrive.
eCos and Embedded Linux do have different aims, and are targetted
at opposite ends of the embedded "spectrum."  Our goal is for a
unified approach, being driven by the [currently named] EL/IX effort.

EL/IX is a design API for embedded systems, which attempts to handle
the entire spectrum.  The basic API is designed to be OS neutral,
with the underlying OS (be it Linux or eCos or whatever) providing
the support for the API.  The API is layered in such a way that 
applications can target to it and be protected from the details of
the OS that implements it.

We [Red Hat] intend to support eCos (with an EL/IX compatability layer)
as well as Linux in this world.

For more details, see the EL/IX project page:
  http://sourceware.cygnus.com/elix/

Or, better yet, come by and see EL/IX in action at the Linux World Expo,
Feb 2-4, in New York City.