another, rtems vs rest?

[saran at space.ee.iitm.ernet.in (J.Saravanan)]

Hi,

Well, I've a beginners question (in rtos world).

I understand RTEMS is an RTOS and is most suitable for control
applications. It can be seen that (from mailing list archive) RTEMS can
also be used for non-RTOS purpose, with a small shell and few applications
that are statically linked.

My question is, If time is not critical then what prevents from using
RTEMS as general purpose OS, just like linux. I believe, one cannot link
too may applications in an RTOS like in general purpose OS. Is that
correct? Then what is the knee point?  

(Assuming RTEMS and the rest has all the facilities available, like 
library, etc.)

Thanks,

Regards,
-Saran