Distributions
Anywhere with a CPU, RAM, and a bit of storage. Wearable to datacenter.
Reach
Evo is not a media-player framework. It is not an audio framework. It is not even, in any deep sense, a Linux framework. The architecture makes one assumption only: there is a CPU somewhere, with some RAM and a little storage, that needs to compose contributions from plugins around subjects. Everything else - the operating system, the hardware class, the domain, the form factor, the power envelope - is free.
The framework runs on Unix today, eight architectures, three ARM profiles, glibc and musl. The contracts the framework defines do not mention Unix. Ports to RTOS environments, bare-metal Cortex-M targets, embedded WASM runtimes, and constrained RISC-V profiles are open invitations - the plugin contract reduces to a respond/take-custody shape that any reasonable runtime can satisfy.
Who could ship a distribution
The framework is brand-neutral. Anyone with a hardware target and a domain in mind can ship a vendor distribution: an automotive OEM shipping a head unit, a satellite operator shipping a mission computer, a wearables maker shipping a wristwatch, an industrial controls integrator shipping a SCADA console. The set below is illustrative, not announced.
Aerospace
Mission computer for a probe. Telemetry recorder, image pipeline, attitude controller, thermal management - all as plugins. Pieces are signed and updated individually over a thin uplink; the framework itself is rarely touched.
Submarine / marine
Bridge console for sub-sea operations. Sonar, navigation, life support, propulsion telemetry as independent plugins composing into a coherent operator surface. Plugins never coordinate; the steward is the only place state changes - the property you want when the crew is breathing your software.
Automotive OEM
Infotainment head unit, telematics gateway, ADAS coprocessor in one stack. Same fabric across multiple vehicle compute zones. Each zone admits the catalogue it needs; vendor plugins for the proprietary protocols sit alongside brand-neutral plumbing for media, networking, identity.
Festival production
Lighting, rigging, audio, video coordination across a festival site. New act is a new plugin set loaded for that act's catalogue. Plugins for DMX, MIDI show-control, network audio, video walls. Operator sovereignty: a stage manager swaps the catalogue between shows, no vendor in the loop.
Wearables maker
Wristwatch counting heart rate, steps, sleep, plus a future ambient-stress plugin that ships separately. Same fabric vocabulary from MCU prototype to production silicon. The plugin contract reduces to a respond/take-custody shape an embeddable runtime can satisfy.
Datacenter / NVIDIA partner
GPU inference appliance running models for industrial customers. Each model is a plugin with its own signing posture; swap a model without restarting the appliance. The fast path serves real-time inference; the slow path serves projections to a fleet operator.
Medical device
Patient monitor in an ICU. Vitals, infusion, ventilator data each a separate plugin signed under the device manufacturer's key, with operator sovereignty so the hospital's biomed team has the final word. Piece-granular signed updates fit a regulated change- control regime cleanly.
Industrial / SCADA
Power substation control panel. One fabric across SCADA, HMI, telemetry, alarm management. Vendor plugins for the IEC 61850 stack, brand-neutral plugins for everything else. Configuration is data; a typo is a one-line edit, not an outage window.
What ships today
These are the actual public artefacts. The reference generic device for the audio domain is the canonical demonstration of every framework function.
evo-device-audio
The reference generic device for the audio domain. Brand-neutral plugins under the org.evoframework.* namespace: MPD playback, ALSA composition, file-tag metadata, local artwork. Used today as the canonical demonstration of every framework function; read the source if you want to see the plugin contract concretely.
Your distribution here
The framework supports an open set of distributions across an open set of domains. New domain? Start a evo-device-<domain> reference. New brand on an existing domain? Start a evo-device-<vendor> vendor distribution adopting the relevant reference. The BOUNDARY document is the normative checklist.
What "tier" means
Reference generic devices are signed by the evo project's commons key and live under the org.evoframework.* namespace. Their job is to provide brand-neutral plumbing for one domain, ready for any vendor distribution to adopt by name. The audio reference is the canonical demonstration of the framework's full surface; future references for video, home automation, instrumentation, vehicle compute, and aerospace follow the same pattern.
Vendor distributions are signed by the vendor's own key and live under per-vendor namespaces (com.<vendor>.*). Their job is to ship a deployable device: catalogue choices, vendor plugins, branding, packaging, release planes. Vendor distributions adopt one or more reference generic devices; they do not duplicate the brand-neutral work.
The framework, the reference generic devices, and the vendor distributions all release independently and are signed independently. A distribution bumps its framework pin when it chooses, and its reference-device pin when it chooses; either bump may happen without the other.