Consumer electronics industry rallies around Linux

In a move that could potentially bring Linux to the masses, eight of the world’s top consumer electronics vendors have formed an alliance to promote development of the open-source operating system for use in digital devices including audio and visual equipment and mobile phones.

Sony, Royal Philips Electronics and Matsushita Electric Industrial, which makes the Panasonic brand, are among the founding members of the CE Linux Forum (CELF), which was announced Tuesday. Its goals include defining the technical requirements that will make Linux more suitable for use in consumer electronics products, and promoting wider use of the operating system in the consumer electronics industry, according to a joint statement.

The CELF will publish its list of requirements and take submissions from Linux developers who contribute to their goals. Work to be done includes reducing the time it takes to start up and shut down the operating system, improving its real-time capabilities, reducing memory requirements and improving power management capabilities, the group said.

The move appears as something of a blow to Microsoft, which has been promoting the use of its own software in DVD players, televisions and other electronics gear. Bill Gates, the company’s chairman and chief software architect, has been the opening speaker at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for the past several years.

Formation of the CELF builds on an announcement in December by Matsushita and Sony, who said they had agreed to enhance the Linux platform for use in their audio and video products. At that time they also said they were considering establishing a forum to promote the wider use of Linux with participation from peers in the industry.

Since Linux is an open source product, vendors can access its source code and make whatever changes they like so long as they share their modifications freely with others. The software also carries no license fees, which could make it well suited to the consumer electronics market where sales volumes are often very high.

A spokeswoman for Royal Philips said the company is interested in using Linux for “networked” electronics products which can be linked together throughout the home. They might include stereos, speakers, printers and virtually any other type of electronics gear, said Jeannet Harpe, a communications manager with Philip’s consumer products group.

“(Consumer electronics) products are becoming more complex so we need a new kind of operating system. By joining these eight companies together we think we can maybe design and enhance the Linux OS,” she said.

Linux is already used in some consumer devices, Harpe noted, including Philips’ iPronto, a universal remote control that has a Wi-Fi connection and doubles as a Web surfing tablet.

The spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on any timing for the Linux development work. She also wouldn’t discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of Linux compared to other operating systems, saying only that Philips sees opportunities for the open-source platform.

Besides defining requirements for a variety of extensions to Linux, the CELF’s main goals include “collaborating and reaching consensus with open source projects” and the broader community of Linux developers and promoting the use of “CE Linux,” as the group called it, in the industry.

Linux code developed for the industry can be submitted to a CELF Architecture Group and Steering Committee, the group said Tuesday. Code that is accepted will be included into the CELF source tree, which itself will be open to the public, according to the group’s Web site.

The other members of the group are Toshiba, Hitachi, NEC, Samsung Electronics and Sharp. IBM is also “pursuing membership in the group” and plans to be an active participant, according to the CELF statement. IBM couldn’t immediately be reached for comment early Tuesday.

More information is available here.