The “Internet of Things,” or IoT, has the potential to change the way we interact with the devices and objects in our homes and lives.

A simple, customizable open source operating system designed for these types of embedded systems would make it easier for a lot of manufacturers to bring viable products to the market. Just as Android made it easier for new manufacturers to enter the smartphone market.

To be suitable for this purpose, an operating system would need to be:

1. Small, because these are mostly simple devices without much in the way of resources.
2. Open source, so manufacturers can tinker with it to get it to work with their equipment.
3. Capable of detecting and working with a wide variety of different sensors and actuators.
4. TCP/IP ready.