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Panasonic Forms Embedded Linux Incubator 63

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the more-corporations-on-the-bandwagon dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Panasonic has opened an embedded Linux incubator in Silicon Valley, where it hopes to host and collaborate with several Linux startups, in exchange for 'first right-of-refusal on up to 10 percent of the startup's next institutional funding round'. From the article: 'Panasonic uses other open sources OSes in addition to Linux, but Linux has become a top choice due to its cost-effectiveness and robust nature,' according to the Center's director. Panasonic is in the same corporate family as Matsushita, which is one of the founding members of the Consumer Electronics Linux Foundation (CELF)."
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Panasonic Forms Embedded Linux Incubator More

Panasonic Forms Embedded Linux Incubator

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  • In other news (Score:5, Funny)

    by benja ( 623818 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @06:38AM (#13555570)
    Microsoft has opened a Linux-on-the-desktop incubator, which hopes to host, fund and collaborate with several of the most inventive desktop Linux startups, in exchange for first right-of-refusal of the products going to market.

  • but Linux has become a top choice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) * on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @06:39AM (#13555573)
    "but Linux has become a top choice due to its cost-effectiveness and robust nature". It couldn't be that next to Windows and Macintosh, Linux has the most recognizable name for an OS? Linux in the the most robust OS out there. I have seen BSDs, Solaris, and <font size="very small and meek"%gt;SCO<font> systems run much more robustly then Linux. And the BSD's and some versions of Solaris are free as well, and pretty damn close to use.

    • Re:but Linux has become a top choice (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Being popular is part of being cost effective, more people familiar with it.
    • Well, compared to all the "more robust" systems you mention, I imagine better embedded device support is the deciding factor. Robustsness is not an absolute, most embedded devices don't run with the redundancy, quality and whatnot to be a 99,99999% uptime system anyway. Besides, if you take a known, fixed hardware configuration and load test the hell out of it, how many problems do you really have left on linux?

      Kjella
    • I havn't used Solaris much and I havn't used Unixware at all, but I've seen FreeBSD make mistakes with similar regularity as Linux. It's a good OS for sure, but there is nothing huge between it and Linux.

      Part of the difference I think is that BSD currently has the same overwhelmingly competent userbase that it always had*. this makes it seem hugely more stable in the same way that Linux seemed more stable than it really is back in the '90s. Now, increasingly people are trying Linux where they may not have

      • Re:but Linux has become a top choice (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Actually, I think the main difference between Linux and *BSD is that *BSD doesn't come packaged with politics and a revolution. The BSD folks are more interested in make a stable, secure, usable OS than preaching from a soapbox about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket if people don't use the GPL. The different BSD distros have their own particular goals, but there is a lot of sharing between them. OTOH, Linux distros are more concerned with promoting their own distro and to hell with everyone
        • I've heard that BSD authors are completely apolitical many times. However I've read far too many rants about how this makes BSD far better than Linux to believe this to be anything other than blatant hypocrisy. BSD users take so much time to denounce the GPL as being not free enough and denounce other BSDs for not doing things the "right way" and denounce Linux as being a operating system for petty political children that any assertion that BSD people do not have politics is completely laughable.

          You are fo


          • There arn't many distributions of BSD, no there are multiple completely rewritten operating systems from the core up. Free, Net and Open BSDs don't just rely on different package managers, they have completely different kernels and core libraries.
            And that's worse than having 300+ Linux distros?

            Theo de Raadt is a BSD developer, not a Linux developer. Need I say more?
            Yes, you do need to say more. He leads the development of one of the most secure OSes around. The man has a reputation for expressing his op

            • And that's worse than having 300+ Linux distros?

              Depends on how you look at it. With Linux, you can be sure you're having the same kernel(the distributor may add a few more features, but it's closer than any of the BSDs), the same GNU, etc, etc.Yes, you do need to say more. He leads the development of one of the most secure OSes around. The man has a reputation for expressing his opinion, so what? How is he any different from RMS or ESR? You're in total agreement with him. He wasn't saying that Theo was an

            • You just proved my point that BSD is just as heated with politics as Linux through your post. Thank you. Though it needs no reply to prove my point since that has been done for me, I may as well answer the questions asked of me.

              And that's worse than having 300+ Linux distros?

              Well it does cause a lot of code duplication. Repackaging can be done by people with fairly minimal skillsets, whereas rewriting the core of an OS takes quite a bit of skill. All linux distros use the same Kernel written by Linus an

    • Which part of EMBEDDED Linux startups didn't you grok?

      Linux is one of the top, and arguably the top, choice for embedded projects. Hell, my wireless router/firewall/hub runs Linux, my TiVo runs Linux, even my damn cell phone runs Linux.

      This isn't to say there aren't other products competing, but it isn't surprising that a free, open, portable, fairly lean kernel with more applications available than God has risen to the top, and to anyone who has done any work with embedded devices, it is no surprise that
    • But Linux is not an OS, It should be GNU/Linux!!! Damn those bastards ruining my perfect day!
      • I know this was a joke, but just to pretend I don't get the joke: Actually, on an embedded platform (at least one without a lot of storage), a Linux system is probably going to have very little GNU code. An embedded Linux system is likely to use BusyBox [busybox.net] for basic Unix-compatible commands like ls and rm, and something like uClibc [uclibc.org] or dietlibc for its C library, and won't have things like Emacs or a compiler actually on the system. So it's unlikely to have much actual GNU-project code on it, if any.

  • If Panasonic like Linux... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zenmojodaddy ( 754377 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @06:40AM (#13555575)
    ... is there any chance of them selling a Toughbook preloaded with it? Please?

    I have a second hand 233Mhz CF-27 running Slackware and it beats the crap out of the £1000 + Acer with WinXP my boss bought himself...
    • if Panasonic started selling Toughbooks with Linux preloaded i would buy one, maybe two...

    • Re:If Panasonic like Linux... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by stripyd ( 614714 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @07:26AM (#13555734)
      ... is there any chance of them selling a Toughbook preloaded with it? Please?

      Chance would be a fine thing. Being windows-ignorant I first slung GNU/linux onto a cf-25 in 1996 and racked up nearly half a million miles with it before replacing it with a T1 which I am now bumming round marinas in the balkans with. Great kit (survived falls from moving westfalia van, soakings in the tropics and all kinds of abuse) but forget support: UK support won't even answer your emails on OS neutral hardware questions 85% of the time.

      Before straying too far off topic, I doubt the development of drivers for panasonic embedded linux products is going to leak over into helping out the toughbook user who wants a copy of lindvd or needs to get that SD slot working. On the upside though, most everything on my T1 already works out of the box with SuSE 9.3 (except the SD card slot, but including the winmodem and acpi). Things aint the labour of love they used to be 10 years ago. Check out the reviews of toughbooks on Werner Heuser's invaluable tuxmobil.org [tuxmobil.org].

      Linux on toughbooks always struck me as being an ideal combination (all the tools you need for any bizzare geek situation in any corner of the globe). Anyone know of any large organisations using toughbooks with customised linux (with or without Panasonics complicity)?

      • a lot of toughbooks seem to be showing up government-surplus. I think they were military issued, but can someone with time in the service confirm this?

    • For the benefit of trolls, let me clarify. I can do everything on my laptop that my boss needs to do on his, though it might take a little longer. I have NEVER had it crash on me, whereas his regularly freaks out on him. Even after seven or eight years out in the field with a utility company before I got it, my Toughbook feels indestructible compared to the flimsy plastic on my boss's laptop.

      I repeat: beats the crap out of it.

  • Japanese have always used open standards (Score:5, Informative)

    by core ( 3330 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @06:46AM (#13555598) Homepage
    Japanese CE engineers have eaten TRON for breakfast since they were little. CE devices have outgrown TRON now that everything requires handling digital file formats and releasing code on tight schedules while not crashing the whole device if possible. The transition to Linux in Japan is massive (teams I worked with or talked to at Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, NEC, all make Linux-based devices). Montavista Japan / ELT is a growing force.

    --
    Hit action puzzler for mac and pc, Atlantis: http://www.funpause.com/ [funpause.com]

  • Smart move ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BlueTrin ( 683373 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @07:00AM (#13555646) Homepage Journal
    I was wondering myself if this would have an effect on Panasonic's products. Because if you want to use Linux, you just need to hire some talented programmers with some experience at developping hardware using Linux. What is the real effect (if there is any) of such an announcement compared to creating a new department within the company or changing their strategy, asidde from the marketing effect ?
    • What is the real effect (if there is any) of such an announcement compared to creating a new department within the company or changing their strategy, asidde from the marketing effect ?

      What's the effects of making an announcement besides marketing? There is none. Marketing is the only reason the announcement was made.

  • I believe...... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by amodm ( 876842 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @07:00AM (#13555648)
    apart from the robust nature of Linux that they are talking about, one of the biggest reasons why Linux might be helpful in the embedded scenario is the almost infinite level of customization and tuning that can be done with it.

    In the embedded scenario, its the customization that counts more IMHO.

    PS: Not that robustness doesn't count. But (as someone pointed out) there ARE systems which come pretty close, if not better, to linux.

  • Embedded Linux Incubator? (Score:4, Funny)

    by eglass1 ( 521686 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @07:01AM (#13555649)
    Probably a good choice; embedded Linux can keep eggs twice as warm as WinCE, from what I hear.

  • Linux on an incubator! (Score:3, Funny)

    by strider44 ( 650833 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @07:08AM (#13555668)
    Wow! They run Linux on anything nowadays!
  • Yes, but does it hatch pinguins?

  • Not to nitpick, but... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Panasonic is in the same corporate family as Matsushita,
    Um, Panasonic IS Matsushita, or is a marketing brand-name for Matsushita. Matsushita is the Global Company with child-companies or "divisions", if you will, under it which carry the Panasonic Name. For instance, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. (PMC) is a division or child-company of Matsushita Electronics Incorperated (MEI), the parent "company" which presides over all of Panasonic. I know, because I work for them.

  • Set Top Boxes (Score:2, Informative)

    by bjbyrne ( 28514 )
    Panasonic has been using Linux for a while with their set top boxes. I found this old cnet story here. http://news.com.com/2102-1016_3-996984.html?tag=st .util.print [com.com]
  • I like the idea of an embedded linux incubator. My company, which develops wifi mesh routers, uses embedded linux and weve been looking at going to an incubator to sort of help things run more smoothly. The problem with this is that's it's in silicon valley. I know I shouldn't expect Panasonic to bend to my whims, but if it were in the Boston area, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

    I am dismayed by so much off-topic bullshit in the comments for this story. I'm also irritated at the BSD vs. Linux argument. I'd lik
  • I mean... just like this [msucares.com] but with embedded Linux?

    Cool...

  • I just bought a Panasonic test winner digital camera and it rocks! 12X optical zoom, yet lighter and smaller than competitors. Long batt life. USB works without extra drivers (Canon is famous for not working).

    And now I hear Panasonic is also Linux friend!

    I love that camera...

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