The latest embedded market research data from Venture Development Corp. shows that Linux is now firmly in first place as the operating system of choice for smart gadgets and embedded systems. VDC’s latest data indicates that Linux now accounts for 15.5 percent of embedded projects, beating out Microsoft’s WinCE (6 percent) and XPe (5 percent), and Wind River’s VxWorks (10.3 percent).

“Linux in embedded systems has transcended the fad stage to become a market reality,” VDC says, in a research bulletin released today entitled “Embedded Linux Goes Mainstream.”

The bulletin notes that Linux has fundamentally changed the embedded marketplace, where it will likely remain in use for the foreseeable future. “Linux has been one of the major market forces, [bringing changes] not just in technology, but in business models that have been associated with the embedded software market for years,” the VDC bulletin states. “Despite criticisms leveled by traditional market players towards Linux, and a lack of stability amongst the Linux suppliers, Linux is not going away. In fact, all of a sudden it’s pretty much mainstream.”