VDC: How will Wind River's anti-Linux past affect its current Linux plans?

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(Oct. 2, 2003)

Chris Lanfear and Steve Balacco of Venture Develpment Corporation (VDC) have published their perspective on Wind River's announcement of Linux tools support. VDC speculates that Wind's announcement signals a strategic shift for the largest embedded software company, but wonders how the embedded Linux developer community will react, given the company's historic anti-Linux stance.

VDC Whitepaper:

Wind River supports Linux

by Chris Lanfear and Steve Balacco
Venture Development Corporation

September 2003 #2

What Happened

Earlier today Wind River announced that its hardware-assisted debugging tools would be supporting Linux...that's right Linux.

VDC's View

Could this announcement signal a dramatic change in strategy for one of the leading suppliers of embedded operating systems, development tools and integrated platforms? Previously, Wind River was committed to a strategy of focusing on its commercial OSs and tools and fighting the encroachment of Linux into the core embedded systems market. Now, after what was likely a long and anguished process, Wind River has taken the first steps in supporting the leading open source OS - not that Wind River was anti-open source given its acquisition of the software assets of BSDi. Wind thought that the BSD license would be more business-friendly, and that the operating system would complement its existing RTOS offerings. However, Linux posed a more present danger to its commercial OS and tools business given its wide popularity, license structure, and committed community. Wind River was, along with Microsoft, one of the loudest anti-Linux voices in the media, through quotes, white papers, and other methods.

Fast-forward to the Fall of 2003 - Wind River has adjusted its strategy. VDC expects this announcement to be the first, with more to follow concerning Wind River and their stand-alone tools business and Linux. What drove this? Likely it was customers who had been working in mixed VxWorks and other OS environments, requesting Linux support that would be on par with the high-quality tools that they had come to expect when using a commercial OS. Indeed, VDC research over the past few years has revealed that one of the leading knocks against Linux was the availability of high-quality tools. This has been improving with leading third-party tools suppliers and commercial Linux vendors developing their own tool chains. But compared to the breadth and depth of tools supporting VxWorks, for example, there was still a wide gap.

VDC believes this signals some significant shifts within Wind River:

From Wind River being a commercial OS vendor to being a supplier of embedded technologies for developers. This might be the final step in moving from an inwardly-focused technology company to responding to the way developers are actually working.
Acknowledgment of the open source movement as a legitimate alternative to commercial and in-house development.
Acceptance of Linux emerging as a viable OS within telecom/datacom infrastructure.
Realization of the value of their stand-alone tools extending beyond being a premium level of tools for VxWorks.

However, VDC is not without concerns:

Having been so vocal in the anti-Linux movement, will Linux users embrace the Wind River offerings?
Does this move damage Wind's credibility with existing and potential VxWorks users in light of their 3+ years of railing against Linux?
How much risk is associated with diluting the strong association of Wind River with VxWorks and a royalty-bearing business model?

That said, VDC believes that while this move will not reinvigorate Wind River by itself, that this is yet another step in the right direction for the company (see our bulletin on WRS license changes). Linux is not just a reality but also one of the fastest growing segments of the embedded OS market at this time. Addressing Linux with stand-alone tools, which have always supported other OSs, is a good way to take a first step into the Linux market.

Upcoming embedded research

VDC will be launching its 2004 service year starting in October 2003. The Embedded Systems Industry Bulletin is published as part of VDC's "Embedded Software Strategic Market Intelligence Program." VDC has been providing embedded systems market intelligence for 20 years.

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