Groklaw responds to GHS ‘FUD’
Apr 12, 2004 — by LinuxDevices Staff — from the LinuxDevices Archive — viewsGroklaw has responded to Green Hills Software's (GHS's) recent attacks on embedded Linux with an article prepared by Editor Pamela Jones with input from Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) Executive Director Murry Shohat. The article includes quotes from the CEOs of several embedded Linux companies.
Jones and Groklaw readers are doubtless grateful for a story about something besides SCO.
Dr. Inder Singh, CEO of LynuxWorks, calls the GHS attack a “shrill broadside,” and implies that it reflects sour grapes on the part of a company hurt economically by embedded Linux's momentum. Singh points out several inaccurate statements in the GHS release, before suggesting that GHS's allusion to EAL7 is disingenous, since it implies that GHS offers an EAL7 OS.
Victor Yodaiken, CEO of FSMLabs, refutes GHS claims that UNIX co-author Ken Thompson illustrated the inherent insecurity of open source by introducing a Trojan Horse back door into UNIX. Yodaiken calls GHS statements “a very peculiar take on the famous Turing award lecture by Thompson,” according to the article.
The article next presents a lengthy analysis and refutation of several points made by GHS:
- That international contributions to Linux pose a threat
- That Ken Thompson's UNIX hack was widely distributed and reflects upon open source development
- That GHS does not use or support Linux in its own products
- That Linux is too insecure by design to ever be certified
- That proprietary development is more secure
- That the Mitre Report suggested open source software was insecure
The article then concludes with “it appears that Mr. O'Dowd is suggesting that Linux is a security threat, not because it is true, but because Linux is affecting his bottom line. The solution to that problem, Mr. O'Dowd, is to follow Wind River's example.”
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