LONDON — About one third of the respondents to an EE Times Europe poll are planning to use Linux as an embedded operating system in their next project. This compares with about 50 percent when the same question was asked one year ago.

Some 33 percent of the respondents to latest poll, conducted during September, said they were planning to use Linux for a future embedded operating system; 26 percent said they planned to use a commercial operating system, up from 15 percent a year ago, and 16 percent said they would use an operating system developed in-house. This is slightly up on the 14 percent that said they would use an operating system developed in-house a year ago.

This leaves about one quarter of embedded engineers whose projects don't require an operating system, real-time or otherwise, according to the poll. This is also comparable with the 22 percent who answered that way a year ago

The vote is a "straw poll" with a self-selecting audience. The next poll asks readers to consider how long will it take after the 'meltdown' banking crisis for the global economy to recover from any resulting recession? Readers can vote in the left-hand column of the EE Times Europe home page.