Linux desktop systems are known for having uptimes measured in months and even years in some cases. This reliability is the direct result of having so many people working on the code and tracking down bugs. Long-term reliability is an obvious advantage for embedded systems that must run in a completely unattended mode. As embedded code becomes more complicated, well-debugged software become more important. It appears that many developers are moving away from islands of proprietary software towards continents of open-source applications and operating systems.
Monolithic systems seem to be giving way to more distributed approaches.
The additional requirement of networking in embedded systems means that the code base for a project must grow in a large way. Many Linux programmers have built their knowledge of networking by playing with Linux systems and digging around in the network code. That base of experts is being tapped by the resourceful companies. Many of the Linux companies at the conference had one or more young people with obviously big brains working their booths. This youthful energy seems to be one of the key ingredients for businesses entering the open-source world.