Six big technology companies are joining forces to fund a non-profit company to help speed development of Linux-based software. Six prominent technology companies have joined forces to fund a non-profit company to further develop Linux-based software to be used in cellphones, tablet PCs and other products and devices. The venture is being backed by Arm Hldgs (LON:ARM) , IBM (NYSE:IBM), Samsung Electronics Co (LON:SMSN), Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE:TXN), Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and ST-Ericsson.
The purpose of the venture is to develop key parts of the Linux based operating systems, as well as the programming tools and other related software components. Initially the development will be targeted at ARM architecture.
ARM's chip designs are found in most mobile phones, including Apple's, and the move comes after electronics giant Intel teamed up with Nokia to offer an operating system called Meego - which they are using to increase their foothold in the mobile communications market.
Many software efforts aimed at consumer devices, including Meego and Android, are already based on the Linux operating system. However, Linux was originally developed around the x86 chips sold by Intel and AMD, and created by programmers who were focused primarily on server systems. Because of this, and the fact that Linux resides in the open source software market, variants don't come quickly to the consumer market, and sometimes lack key features and wide-spread integration.
Linaro is partly designed to address that problem, coming up with regular distributions of kernels (the core of the operating system), tailored for the consumer market. The first software release is due out in November 2010.
Although Linux based systems have never been able to compete with the larger software companies in the vast consumer market, the mobile communications industry is a rapidly expanding market, and we've not even scratched the surface in terms of the possibilities of mobile software - in light of this, Linaro is definitely an interesting company to watch out for.
