Web servers
Many network enabled devices can just have a network interface
- Examples: modems / routers, IP cameras, printers...
- No need to develop drivers and applications for computers connected to the device. No need to support multiple operating systems!
- Just need to develop static or dynamic HTML pages (possibly with powerful client-side JavaScript). Easy way of providing access to device information and parameters.
- Reduced hardware costs (no LCD, very little storage space needed)
BusyBox http server: http://busybox.net
- Tiny: only adds 9 K to BusyBox (dynamically linked with glibc on i386, with all features enabled.)
- Sufficient features for many devices with a web interface, including CGI, http authentication and script support (like PHP, with a separate interpreter).
- License: GPL
- Other possibilities: lightweight servers like Boa, thttpd, lighttpd, nginx, etc
- Some products are using Node.js, which is lightweight enough to be used.