Preface

The Linux kernel is at the heart of a large number of embedded products being designed today. Over the last 10 years, this operating system has developed from dominating the server market to being the most used operating system in embedded systems, even those with real-time requirements. On the way, Linux has evolved, and the embedded industry has realized it has some key and unique characteristics:

• Linux is quick to adapt to new technologies and it's the place where innovation happens first
• It is robust, and the development community is quick to react to problems
• It is secure, and vulnerabilities are discovered and dealt with in a much quicker way than in competing proprietary products
• It is open, which means your company is able to own, modify, and understand the technology
• Finally, Linux is free

All of these make it a very compelling choice for embedded development.

But at the same time, an embedded Linux product is not only the Linux kernel. Companies need to build an embedded system over the operating system, and that's where embedded Linux was finding it difficult to make its place—until Yocto arrived.

The Yocto Project brings all the benefits of Linux into the development of embedded systems. It provides a standard build system that allows you to develop embedded products in a quick, reliable, and controlled way. Just as Linux has its strong points for embedded development, Yocto has its own too:

• Yocto is secure, as it uses recent sources and provides the means to quickly apply security vulnerabilities to your products
• It is robust, as it is used by a large community, which is quick to react to problems
• It is open, so your company can own the technology, understand it, and make it fit for specific needs
• It is free

With the Yocto Project's 6-month stable release process, package management updates, and flexibility, you will be able to focus on your embedded application, knowing that you are building it on top of a trusted system. You will speed up your development cycles and produce outstanding products.

But Yocto is a new technology, and developers need to adapt to it. This books aims to provide a practical guide for readers with basic knowledge of Linux and Yocto to develop a production-ready industrial system based on the ARM architecture.