As a follow up to my previous post, this one talks about appliances in open source. When you say appliance and immediately Linux comes to my mind. I haven't seen any other open source operating system that is widely deployed as Linux. Today, most of the appliances (watch, microwave, routers, switches and many more) are powered by Linux. Unlike general purpose computers like workstations or PC, the appliances are built for specific purpose. The appliance should be an "expert" in doing something. For example in the case of router appliance, the appliance characteristics should be throughput and performance in routing packets.
The appliance market is quite heated up and there are many small players turning the heat and screwing up big market players and industry leaders. They do not have "low cost" as their only advantage but they are in a position to give features, performance and throughput on par with industry leaders but at the half the price or even less. From here on, I believe open source appliances is going to get into mainstream and slowly open source appliance will take more market. Making open source appliance (or take it from me, it makes sense to make Linux appliance) is the way to go. The appliance also gives us a viable business model to sell products and services particularly in a developing countries like India.
The appliance market is quite heated up and there are many small players turning the heat and screwing up big market players and industry leaders. They do not have "low cost" as their only advantage but they are in a position to give features, performance and throughput on par with industry leaders but at the half the price or even less. From here on, I believe open source appliances is going to get into mainstream and slowly open source appliance will take more market. Making open source appliance (or take it from me, it makes sense to make Linux appliance) is the way to go. The appliance also gives us a viable business model to sell products and services particularly in a developing countries like India.
