Choosing Linux

Why is Linux so pervasive? And why does something as simple as a TV need to run something as complex as Linux just to display streaming video on a screen?

The simple answer is Moore’s law. Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel, observed in 1965 that the density of components on a chip doubles approximately every two years. That applies to the devices that we design and use in our everyday lives just as much as it does to desktops, laptops, and servers. At the heart of most embedded devices is a highly integrated chip that contains one or more processor cores and interfaces with main memory, mass storage, and peripherals of many types. This is referred to as a System on Chip (SoC). SoCs are increasing in complexity in accordance with Moore’s law. A typical SoC has a technical reference manual that stretches to thousands of pages.

Your TV isn’t simply displaying a video stream like the analog sets of old. The stream is digital, possibly encrypted, and needs processing to produce an image. Your TV is (or soon will be) connected to the internet. It can receive content from smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and home media servers. It can be used to play games, stream video, and display live feeds from security cameras. You need a full OS to manage this degree of complexity.

Here are some points that drive the adoption of Linux:

• Linux has the necessary functionality. It has a good scheduler, a good network stack, support for USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, many kinds of storage media, multimedia devices, and so on. It ticks all the boxes.
• Linux has been ported to a wide range of processor architectures, including some that are very commonly found in SoC designs – Arm, RISC-V, x86, PowerPC, and MIPS.
• Linux is open source, so you have the freedom to get the source code and modify it to meet your needs. You or someone working on your behalf can create a board support package for your device. You can add protocols, features, and technologies that may be missing from the mainline source code. You can remove features that you don’t need to reduce memory and storage requirements. Linux is flexible.
• Linux has an active community (in the case of the Linux kernel, very active). There is a new release of the kernel every 8 to 10 weeks, and each release contains code from more than 1,000 developers. An active community means that Linux is up to date and supports current hardware, protocols, and standards. The Linux Foundation is a non-profit organization with backing from big tech.

The foundation acts as a steward for several major open source projects besides Linux, including Kubernetes and PyTorch. It also hosts yearly events around the world like the Open Source Summit and Linux Plumbers Conference.

• Open source licenses guarantee that you have access to the source code. There is no vendor lock-in.

For these reasons, Linux is an ideal choice for complex devices. But there are a few caveats I should mention here. Complexity makes it harder to understand. Coupled with the fast-moving development process and the decentralized structures of open source, you need to put some effort into learning how to use it and to keep on re-learning as it changes. I hope that this book helps in the process.