A connected-device demo can be quick to build because the prototype only has to prove one thing. A product has to keep working after the demo, across updates, changing networks and devices that may stay in the field for years.
That difference ran through IoT Belfast 34 at Xirgo Technologies. Paul McGrotty and David Caskey both came at the platform question from the point of view of shipping embedded systems rather than simply getting a proof of concept running.
The useful question was not whether Linux is good or bad. It was whether a full distribution is the right operational choice for the device in front of you. Updates, security patches, configuration drift and the resources available on the hardware all become part of the product once there are devices to support in the field.
Zephyr RTOS came up as one way to reduce that weight for constrained connected devices while keeping a modern development model. The trade is different, not magically simpler: teams still need to think about deployment, application behaviour, configuration and how they will maintain what they ship.
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