Japanese electronics makers banding together to promote Linux
Posted on: Wednesday, 2 July 2003, 06:00 CDT
TOKYO (AP) -- In a major blow to Microsoft Corp., Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. and seven other companies are banding together to make software and gadgets based on Linux, a competing and free operating system.
The group to promote Linux, announced Tuesday, includes five other Japanese companies -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes the Panasonic brand, Hitachi, NEC Corp., Sharp Corp., Toshiba Corp. -- as well as Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.
IBM will be joining the group, the companies said in a statement. The group will promote the Linux open source operating system for consumer electronics devices, such as cell phones and audio equipment, they said.
Called ``CE Linux Forum,'' the group will try to improve the start up and shutdown time of the system and improve capabilities to enhance Linux use in gadgets. The findings will be published, it said.
As more companies and governments around the world start using Linux, a system that some say is cheaper than Microsoft Windows, Microsoft has been trying to fight back.
In April, Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, said it will allow device manufacturers, processing chip makers and others to see and alter the underlying programming code for its Windows CE operating system. That software is used to power handheld devices, cable modems and various other products.
The Linux source code is available for free and can be modified, improved and shared with the rest of the community. It was created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds while he was a university student in Finland.
The research firm Gartner predicts Linux may have 15 percent of the worldwide server market by 2007.
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