| LinuxDevices year-end review: Top business stories of 2007 |
(Dec. 31, 2007)
JANUARY
APPLE EMBEDS MAC OS X IN PHONE, SET-TOP BOX CEO Steve Jobs unveiled two forthcoming Apple devices based on an embedded version of Mac OS X, at the MacWorld Expo this week in San Francisco. The "Apple TV" set-top box is due in February, while the much-anticipated iPhone combo cellphone/mediaplayer is expected by mid-year. What's next -- OSXdevices.com? Details
SUN TO OFFER OPENSOLARIS UNDER GPLV3 Sun has announced plans to offer its OpenSolaris operating system under the GPLv3. The move could increase OpenSolaris adoption, and could also help GPLv3 gain acceptance. Details
FEBRUARY
LINUX HACKERS OFFER FREE DEVICE DRIVER DEVELOPMENT Ask Linux users what they find most annoying about Linux, and many will complain about device drivers -- while the vast majority of PC components and peripherals work with Linux, some don't work at all, and others are marginal. A leading Linux kernel developer has proposed a solution, Linux-Watch.com reports. Details
WIND RIVER ACQUIRES PATENTED REAL-TIME LINUX TECHNOLOGY Wind River, one of the world's top embedded software providers, has acquired a real-time Linux distribution and patented hard-real-time technology from FSMLabs Inc. The acquisition will help Wind River penetrate new and emerging markets requiring extremely tight timing constraints, including the vast, emerging market for low-cost, single-core feature phones. Details
MARCH
CAN LINUX SAVE MOT'S MOBILE PHONE BIZ? In an effort to cut costs and boost margins, Motorola will reportedly use its Linux/Java based mobile phone operating system across "all mid- and high-tier devices." The beleaguered communications company will fall $1 billion short of analyst expectations this quarter, due to a slump in its mobile phone business. Details
APRIL
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS CONFERENCE ROLLS INTO SILICON VALLEY More than 300 exhibitors and over 10,000 engineers in all were expected to be present at the 19th annual Embedded Systems Conference held this week in San Jose, Calif.'s McEnery Convention Center. The keynoter for the conference was former Vice President Al Gore, who told attendees that energy-efficient IT systems of the future -- many containing embedded processors -- will be a major factor in helping overcome the climate problems the Earth is now facing.
* EMBEDDED CONFAB SHOWCASES GORE, TEARDOWNS, DISRUPTIVE TECH Details
* AL GORE: EMBEDDED TECH CAN HELP HEAL THE EARTH Details
TIMESYS NAMES PERMANENT CEO Embedded Linux development services specialist TimeSys has hired a highly accomplished CEO. Atul Bansal previously served as founding CEO and COO of Linux device-maker Laurel Networks, which sold for $88M in 2004 to Israeli telecom giant ECI. Details
SUN ACQUIRES JAVA-BASED MOBILE PHONE OS Sun Microsystems announced that it is acquiring the assets of SavaJe Technologies, whose claim to fame is a Java-based embedded operating system that was shown running in a mobile phone at JavaOne last May. The deal could potentially place Sun -- whose Java technology resides in hundreds of millions of mobile phones already -- squarely in competition with the major mobile phone OS players: Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Linux. Details
SEPTEMBER
FIRST U.S. GPL LAWSUIT FILED For the first time in the U.S., a company is being taken to court for a GPL violation. Previously, alleged GPL violations have all been settled by letters from the Free Software Foundation or other open-source organizations, pointing out the violation. Read more here:
* FIRST U.S. GPL LAWSUIT FILED Details * THE LINUX DEVICE BEHIND THE GPL'S FIRST U.S. LEGAL TEST Details
OCTOBER
GPLV2 VS. GPLV3 FOR BEGINNERS A research firm serving the mobile phone industry has published an 18-page whitepaper about open source licensing. Entitled "GPLv2 vs. GPLv3," the paper examines the meteoric rise of open source software, and the forces that shaped each license, before concluding with an extremely detailed point-by-point comparison. Details
ESC BOSTON RECAP FEATURES LINUX DEMOS This month's Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston drew 14 percent more attendees than last year's, reports Venture Development Corp. (VDC). In a full summary report on the annual event, the market research firm lists the major announcements, interesting exhibits, and of course, the best giveaways. Details
KERNEL GURU WOOS LINUX DEVS AT MONTAVISTA SUMMIT MontaVista's inaugural partner event this week attracted 400, including many long-time embedded industry vets. Well-run and successful, the "Vision" event nevertheless underscored the modest role embedded developers play in Linux development, despite an explosion in consumer spending on Linux-based devices. Details
NOVEMBER
MOT'S UIQ BUY MORE AN 18 THAN A 180 Motorola's interest in buying half of Symbian stack-provider UIQ represents a diversion rather than a U-turn away from Linux, writes mobile phone market analyst Andreas Constantinou in an informative blog post. Constantinou figures Motorola may move about 10 percent of its planned Linux-based models to UIQ. Details
SFLC, BUSYBOX, MONSOON DISMISS GPL LAWSUIT On Oct. 30, the Software Freedom Law Center, acting on behalf of the two principal BusyBox developers, and Monsoon Multimedia jointly announced that an agreement has been reached to dismiss the GPL enforcement lawsuit, which had been filed by the SFLC. Details
GOOGLE RELEASES ANDROID SDK PREVIEW As expected, Google has released an "early look" version of its SDK (software development kit) for mobile phones. The Eclipse-based Android SDK lets users write Java applications that run on Dalvik, a virtual machine designed to run on top of Linux in embedded applications. Details
DECEMBER
GPL INFRINGEMENT LAWSUITS TARGET TWO MORE COMPANIES The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed two more GPL infringement lawsuits on behalf of an open source software project. The second-ever GPL lawsuit alleges that Xterasys and High-Gain Antennas failed to honor "source-code transparency," in violation of Busybox's GPLv2 license. Details
LINUX-BASED CONSUMER PRODUCTS DRIVE WIND RIVER EARNINGS Wind River yesterday announced solid 3Q earnings, touting wins in embedded Linux consumer electronics. In its earnings call Tuesday, the Alameda, Calif.-based embedded Linux OS and tools vendor pointed to the growth in Linux-based mobile handsets and telematics as key drivers of the company's growth. Details
LINUX PHONE STACK VENDOR WINS BIG IN JAPAN Access has announced an enormous win in Japan for its Linux-based software stack for phones and other mobile devices. The deal could see the Access Linux Platform (ALP) serving as a common OS platform for NEC, Panasonic, and Esteemo phones sold by NTT DoCoMo and other mobile carriers. Details
Most Significant Stories for 2007
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FUEL Database on MontaVista Linux
Whether building a mobile handset, a car navigation system, a package tracking device, or a home entertainment console, developers need capable software systems, including an operating system, development tools, and supporting libraries, to gain maximum benefit from their hardware platform and to meet aggressive time-to-market goals.
Breaking New Ground: The Evolution of Linux Clustering
With a platform comprising a complete Linux distribution, enhanced for clustering, and tailored for HPC, Penguin Computing¿s Scyld Software provides the building blocks for organizations from enterprises to workgroups to deploy, manage, and maintain Linux clusters, regardless of their size.
Data Monitoring with NightStar LX
Unlike ordinary debuggers, NightStar LX doesn¿t leave you stranded in the dark. It¿s more than just a debugger, it¿s a whole suite of integrated diagnostic tools designed for time-critical Linux applications to reduce test time, increase productivity and lower costs. You can debug, monitor, analyze and tune with minimal intrusion, so you see real execution behavior. And that¿s positively illuminating.
Virtualizing Service Provider Networks with Vyatta
This paper highlights Vyatta's unique ability to virtualize networking functions using Vyatta's secure routing software in service provider environments.
High Availability Messaging Solution Using AXIGEN, Heartbeat and DRBD
This white paper discusses a high-availability messaging solution relying on the AXIGEN Mail Server, Heartbeat and DRBD. Solution architecture and implementation, as well as benefits of using AXIGEN for this setup are all presented in detail.
Understanding the Financial Benefits of Open Source
Will open source pay off? Open source is becoming standard within enterprises, often because of cost savings. Find out how much of a financial impact it can have on your organization. Get this methodology and calculator now, compliments of JBoss.
Embedded Hardware and OS Technology Empower PC-Based Platforms
The modern embedded computer is the jack of all trades appearing in many forms.
Data Management for Real-Time Distributed Systems
This paper provides an overview of the network-centric computing model, data distribution services, and distributed data management. It then describes how the SkyBoard integration and synchronization service, coupled with an implementation of the OMG¿s Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard, can be used to create an efficient data distribution, storage, and retrieval system.
7 Advantages of D2D Backup
For decades, tape has been the backup medium of choice. But, now, disk-to-disk (D2D) backup is gaining in favor. Learn why you should make the move in this whitepaper.
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