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Wind River Joins the Mobile Linux Fray

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the self-proclaimed-battles-royale dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Embedded software powerhouse Wind River launched a Consumer Electronics Linux distribution today targeting 'mobile phones, set-top boxes, PVRs, and other small-footprint consumer devices.' The company says several phones based on its brand of Linux will begin shipping before the end of this year, and is rumored to have teamed with PalmSource, which itself is busy converting Palm OS into a software stack for Linux mobile phones."

5 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Is this the same wind river that maintains by Trigun · · Score: 2, Interesting

    PyQT and PyKDE bindings?

  2. Rumored to have teamed with PalmSource? by Sam+Haine+'95 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From TFA:
    It will be interesting to see whether newcomer PalmSource, which is busy converting Palm OS into a software stack running on Linux, taps Wind River as a Linux OS partner in the mobile phone space, as has been rumored. For its part, however, MontaVista already announced an alliance with PalmSource in August.
    PalmSource have always claimed that PalmOS-for-Linux is to be distro-agnostic, allowing the hardware manufacterer to decide which distro to use.
  3. "pristine kernel sources" by jhoger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So is the kernel redistributable under the GPL once it has been patched by WindRiver's wizard? Anyone know the license they use on the patches, or do you end up with a tainted kernel which cannot be redistributed without a separate license agreement from WindRiver?

    Such a wizard sounds like a great way to sneak around the license to me, or at least pass on liability to customers.

    -- John

    1. Re:"pristine kernel sources" by jhoger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, it seems clear that the customer would have an obligation to when they distribute it. The creator of the wizard supplies a tool that downloads the kernel from kernel.org and patches it. The user runs the tool, so the user downloads the kernel, the user does the patches. the user redistributes the end result in their product.

      Who has liability? The end user certainly. But what about the creator of the wizard? Quite possibly, none at all.

      The creator of the wizard never redistributed the kernel, so the GPL is not binding on them. Patches typically contain some context information (lines of source) for syncing up the patch tool, but that could be considered 'fair use.'

      -- John.

  4. Developers Are Their Customers by RichiP · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I agree that competition is good and is necessary in order for companies and their products to improve as best they can (not to mention more choices for consumers and lesser chances of price-fixing), both Wind River and Montavista should always be aware that they both have a responsibility to the developers who are their customers. The danger here is that bickering and fragmentations might paint a bleak landscape to developers and drive them towards Windows. It would be the Unix Wars all over again.

    I believe that these two companies should develop and improve their products as best they can but always collude on making things easier for developers to share the same codebase. Since they're now working in an opensource environment, technical prowess in their engineers as well as great customer service are where they will be competing in. With equal access to source (assuming they release them), it would be in service satisfaction that would differentiate them most. If I were device manufacturer, I would more likely choose the company with the better team of engineers as well as customer service reps.