NewsForge: The next Linux: A mobile version – from Transmeta

“According to Ziff Davis, Torvalds’ employer is getting set to
release source code for its shaved-down, memory- and
energy-efficient version of Linux. According to the report,
Transmeta should be posting the source code for its Mobile Linux
operating system to its Web site in the next two weeks or so.
Although the exact release date isn’t set, it should be before they
set up the display booth at Hall 13 Germany’s massive CeBIT show in
mid-March.”

“This could be interesting. Admittedly the Transmeta version
might not be exactly Alan Cox embodied in silicon as one satirical
Web site suggested, or LinusTorvalds, the portable edition, either.
But the Transmeta design may be as close as we’ve gotten to see
what Torvalds thinks a stripped down version of the operating
system ought to look like.”

“In the last couple of weeks between my day job and my other
gigs, I developed a fairly extensive list of appliance and embedded
systems developers working various compacted and embedded versions
of Linux. … The one’s I did talk to went off the record, but
their response was essentially: 2.4 is nice and Linus is to be
congratulated and we’ll certainly look at it, and bring its
features to our platform, but there’s not a lot there for us. …
Linux for Transmeta may mark a change in that thinking.”

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