Embedded Linux for Developers

The players

Where does open source software come from? Who writes it? In particular, how does this relate to the key components of embedded development—the toolchain, bootloader, kernel, and basic utilities found in the root filesystem?

The main players are:

• The open source community. This, after all, is the engine that generates the software you are going to be using. The community is a loose alliance of developers, many of whom are funded in some way, perhaps by a not-for-profit organization, an academic institution, or a commercial company. They work together to further the aims of the various projects. There are many of them, some small, some large. Some that we will be making use of in the remainder of this book are Linux itself, U-Boot, BusyBox, ...