I always find it funny when people do that with Windows, Mac, and Linux. It completely misses the fact that Linux can be all of these things.
OS for kids: https://www.sugarlabs.org/
Just works: https://www.linuxmint.com/
Fuck around and find out: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
Also, all three pictured devices are probably running Linux… Or at least could.
More likely running Wind River’s VxWorks. Which, as far as I know is the big dog in the RTOS space. The OS being deterministic is super important in safety critical applications like flight computers and cars. Wind River does have a linux distro, but I don’t think VxWorks is. Although, they’ve kind of got caught being complacent and others are moving into the space like Red Hat In Vehicle Operating System.
For a few brief beautiful moments, I assumed you were talking about the firmware running on the Fisher Price toy.
As your answer included more details, my understanding became a delightful confusion and then realization.
the big dog in the vehicle space is more likely QNX, which is still up to date.
windows CE is truly the stuff of nightmares
In the early century I’ve seen companies bundle an entire pc (with case and all) inside their own products just to avoid dealing with windows CE.
…but if you mix it with ME and NT you have a solid OS.
Ugh.