Hi, I'm a windows developer & also a firmware developer and I earn almost all of my money from MS-Windows. while I believe that windows is a great OS but deep in my heart I do not like microsoft because of its arrogance and being ego driven. I like to learn more about linux and I believe sooner or later linux will grow to a size that can beat MS-Windows. unsuccessful launch of vista just reaffirmed my belief. Now, I know that before I can earn money from desktop versions of linux I have to wait for some years but even now embedded linux can spell commercial success. so I decided to learn about embedded versions of linux.
But to make problem even more complicated I'm also new to ARM. of course I have enough experience with 51 and AVR8. I do not want to launch my first ARM project with linux. I will try to port some of my previous codes under AVR8 to AT91SAM7X in next few months and will try to play for some time with these MCUs to feel comfortable with them before diving into embedded linux. but I want in parallel to learning ARMs I also learn about linux.
where should I begin? I have an old K6 pentium 200MHz that is too slow for todays windows application and has no use and I hope that I can install some form of linux on it. Should I install red hat on it to start learning embedded linux?
Another question is that I have heard that if I expect full functional linux I have to use a MCU that supports MMU like ARM9. what version of linux can I use in ARM7(AT91SAM7x)? what are restrictions of these versions of linux?

thanks,

Welcome to the Universe of Open Source

>but I want in parallel to learning ARMs I also learn about linux.
>where should I begin?

You can get ample amount of info. about ARM just by googling ARM and the best way for learning Linux is to install one on the PC and start playing with it. I started learning Linux with Red Hat and it was nice experience (embedded linux is not much different from Desktop Linux).

For linux on ARM you can refer

http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/

For linux on Atmel AT91 controllers

http://www.linux4sam.org/twiki/bin/view/Linux4SAM/WebHome

>I have heard that if I expect full functional linux I have to use a MCU that supports MMU like ARM9.

There is a Linux specifically for MMU less processors like m68k etc.

http://www.uclinux.org/

There is a sofware emulator called Armulator that emulates ARM on your PC
you can even run uClinux on it without the need for any real ARM hardware
Check the uClinux site for it.

Regards,
Devendra

Hi dev, Thanks,

There are different versions of desktop linux, RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, Ubuntu,... I want to learn core of linux for embedded development purposes and as I said I have a old pentiumII 200MHz with 128M RAM that I like to install linux on it. which version should I choose?
I have heard RedHat is most suited for server applications.
and where should I learn about development of linux. for example in windows Microsoft MSDN is a reference site for MS-windows developers, do we have a reference site for linux so I can learn and search different API(s) and functions. what about Development software, is there something like visual studio(I'm a C/C++ developer)

regards,

I have never tried to install Red Hat Linux (for development) on that much old machine but I guess some old version of Red Hat must be running on it.

>where should I learn about development of linux.

Internet is the best place for that google for all your queries and errors.

do we have a reference site for linux so I can learn and search different API(s) and functions.

Linux MAN pages and pinfo can help you for the APIs information.

what about Development software, is there something like visual studio(I'm a C/C++ developer)

This forum would not be able to provide much help on that you will have to
search in forum and sites specifically meant for that.Search them on net and you will definitely find some.