“…Embedded Linux rivals like Lineo claim the BSDi purchase
is a “desperate move” on Wind River’s part. Lineo senior VP, sales
and marketing Rich Larsen says, “Wind River doesn’t know how to
react to Linux and it’s scrambling for an answer.” Larsen claims
Wind River has been losing new design wins to Linux.“
“Wind River flatly denies any such thing and claims in turn that
Linux isn’t gaining any traction in the embedded arena because of
the GNU General Public License (GPL). John Fogelin, vice-president
and general manager of Wind River’s Networks Business Unit, the guy
who’ll be responsible for BSD/OS, says embedded customers “fear the
GPL” because it requires that code changes go back to the
community.”
“The BSD license is supposed to be more “business-friendly.” Any
modifications or enhancements can be retained as proprietary assets
or released as open source at the developer’s option. Commercial
vendors can release just their binaries.”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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