Lineo near Death

An anonymous reader notd a bit running on LinuxGram about Lineo about ready to croak. It paints a pretty bleak view of the Linux embedded system company. Oddly enough, I'm still not exactly sure what they were trying to do.

Sharp ships Linux PDA...

[Anonymous Coward]

It uses Lineo's version of Linux

As seen here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story &cid=73 &ncid=73&e=2&u=/zd/20020404/tc_zd/5105778

Re:Any Open Source/Linux/BSD Companies doing well?

[C. Mattix]

From RedHats SEC 10-Q Filing [tenkwizard.com].

• Gross Profit on Subscription and Services: $40,565,000
  
• Total Operating Expenses: $150,509,000
  
• Net Loss for 9 month period ending November 2001: $-97,965,000
  

That doesn't seem that healthy to me, especially since 1 year ago the net loss was $-62,495,000. And Open Source Services only counted for $13,641,000 of the revenue.

I've got some lineo products

[Restil]

They sell, among other things, a full linux compatible embedded system that fits completely on a single simm chip (30 and 72 pin varieties). Along with 10mbps ethernet, there are several I/O lines available for interfacing with the outside world. The systems I have run at 33mhz and use extremely low power as well as a sleep mode that uses even less. Basically, it can easily function off of nothing more than a small solar cell. It only needs something like 70 mA at 3.3 volts, even less if ethernet isn't being used.

The big problem with its design is, I don't think it scratches a big itch. Its primary useful application is for prototyping. Any company that makes embedded products might want to develop their software using such a device for testing, but if they plan to produce anything remotely resembling significant quantities, they'll lay out their own embedded design to better fit the application at hand.

Also, except in the tiny portable computer market, extremely low power doesn't make much sense. If the product being developed has no power restrictions tied to it (it gets power from the outlet for instance), then the entire advantage of this device is thrown out the window. I've done an analysis of the chips on their board, and it could be built for 1/4 the price if more power hungry versions were used instead. Also, if this
device will be primarily used for prototyping, and there IS a market for such devices, there's no reason to make them work off solar cells. As long as they remain compatible with low power models, they'll be just as effective, and a whole lot cheaper in the long run. And if they're less expensive people will purchase a LOT more of them.
Even the hobby market could support them if only they were priced more reasonably.

But regardless of all of that, face the fact, Lineo is a legacy dot com company. They spend more money than they have, and it shows.

-Restil

Re:New Coke

[John Harrison]

It is shipped from the factory. You can order it on the internet at www.dublindrpepper.com. I bothered to link to it in the parent post. Also, you can get it in glass bottles, which is even better than the can. Finally, I purchase it at the local fancy-pants market, where it goes for $1.50 for a 12 oz bottle. That is, I used to purchase it.

Lineo obtains $1M additional funding

[unsung]

FYI. I just read this article [linuxdevices.com].
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4958883656.html