very, very, VERY long tunnel...

that's one way of looking at it, the otherwayis that since the budgets are so tight thecompanies that do work well with the community and lower their long-term costs will gain more of an advantage.

a lot of this is short-term vs long-term efficiancies.

if an embedded company uses up-to-date versions fthe software, it's easier for them to switch components as those other components are more likely to be supported already.

many companies have trouble taking the long view, but not all