Hobbyists and even professionals are looking at 1000 SKUs to maybe 10,000 SKU projects.
Knowing how to code and design at the 10,000 unit level is important. At this level, paying $3 per oscillator module for 2% higher reliability is more important than paying for a $0.50 XTAL and trying to save $2.50 per SKU.
Because the bulk of the costs are development, and because you are likely building a reputation as an elite artisan selling highly custom goods for a niche audience.
The $20,000 difference of a $2.50 module with slightly better reliability is absolutely the right choice to make.
Higher reliability? Sorry, that is a fallacy .. you're not paying for reliability at scale in either the ESP32 or Embedded Linux scales.
You're paying for what functionality you can attain.. in the ESP32 case, its mighty limited - but as all embedded devs know, challenge accepted - and in the Linux case its mighty complex/hefty and you have to pay to play, in the BOM costs anyway ..
Either way, the 'reliability' factor is misguided, in my opinion. This is not at all why you choose either path.
Both platforms are functionally equivalent. The only difference is capacity.
> At this level, paying $3 per oscillator module for 2% higher reliability is more important than paying for a $0.50 XTAL and trying to save $2.50 per SKU.
I'm talking about oscillators and XTALs in this sentence. Not about Linux.
Anyone making relatively small run items (10,000 or less SKUs) knows what I'm talking about. Saving every penny is counterproductive at this level of production. The main goal is to cut development costs actually.
$2 more on the BOM? Whatever, did that save $10,000 on tooling and software? Definitely worth it. I'm bringing up oscillators and XTALs because XTAL is notoriously difficult to debug with standard lab tools. Its a physical device that changes with just 2pf and might only be running a few microwatts, so you need very low capacitance test equipment to directly debug XTAL issues.
Different tools and methodologies exist at different levels of production. That's all I'm saying. You do _NOT_ pinch every penny at this level, you just buy the more reliable Oscillator-module and avoid XTAL testing all together (saving a ton of money on development tools and development time).
Knowing how to code and design at the 10,000 unit level is important. At this level, paying $3 per oscillator module for 2% higher reliability is more important than paying for a $0.50 XTAL and trying to save $2.50 per SKU.
Because the bulk of the costs are development, and because you are likely building a reputation as an elite artisan selling highly custom goods for a niche audience.
The $20,000 difference of a $2.50 module with slightly better reliability is absolutely the right choice to make.