Yeah. Embedded OSes are niche enough that companies have a hard time employing people just to write code that doesn't immediately meet a project need, and coders have a difficult time getting hired on just to experiment with code.
Open sourcing the OS--the bread and butter of proprietary embedded companies--solves both of these as people who just want to play around can write code to meet their curiosity, and companies can take advantage of a larger labor pool.
Models like that grow much faster than models like Neutrino where it is highly restricted.
Yep. Just to date myself, I supervised a group in the 90s that used iRMX on Intel boxes, and then were one of the first to migrate to what was then called iRMX for Windows, later named InTime which is still supported by tenAsys that bought it from the Intel OMO group. It was very cool to be running Windows as a task and doing machine control with the PC hardware, but the PLC companies saw the threat and effectively rolled it into their offerings. Now the line is so blurry you just pick hardware that fits your needs and don’t worry about what’s inside.