Draft 4 of the joint revision to POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification, being produced by the Austin Group, is now available for review and comment. The Austin Common Standards Revision Group (CSRG) is a joint technical working group established to consider a common revision of ISO/IEC 9945-1, ISO/IEC 9945-2, IEEE Std 1003.1, IEEE Std 1003.2, and the appropriate parts of the Single UNIX Specification. (more…)

Framingham, MA — (press release) — Thin clients are becoming increasingly popular. According IDC, shipments of these devices increased 90% in 1999, and in a recent IDC survey, almost 75% of respondents said thin clients are an acceptable alternative for some PC users. In fact, more than 50% of respondents have replaced PCs with thin clients. (more…)

This article from AsiaBizTech (Tapei) offers some perspective on the growing market for Linux — and embedded Linux — in Taiwan. The activity is mainly focused on servers, PDAs, information appliances, and other embedded devices. The following are excerpts from the AsiaBizTech article. (more…)

Menlo Park, CA — (press release) — The Open Group today announced the launch of the Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum. The Forum will leverage The Open Group's diverse membership to bring together leading vendors with corporate and government customers. This will advance standards development based on real product solutions. (more…)

Salt Lake City, UT — (press release) — Fonix Corporation a provider of human-user interface technology solutions for wireless and mobile devices, vehicle telematics, and Internet and telephony systems, today announced the commercial release of its FAAST (Fonix Accelerated Application Solutions Technology) text-to-speech (TTS) software development kit (SDK) for Linux x86. (more…)

[email protected] Partner's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports on the acquisition by Caldera of the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) Unix server and services division, the long-standing leader in Intel ('x86') based Unix. While neither Caldera nor SCO currently participates in the embedded market space, the sudden boost to Caldera's sales, support, and revenue has the potential to impact the balance at power among “tier… (more…)

IBM has announced availability of a beta version of its DB2 Everyplace Database — a relational database management system with a tiny footprint of less than 150KB. DB2 Everyplace implements a subset of the SQL 99 standard, DB2 Call Level Interface (CLI), Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC). (more…)

Mary Jo Foley, editor at ZDNet News, observes that Linux 2.4 definitely isn't “soup” yet, with the result that Linux distributors are currently faced with dilemma of choosing between building new products around the older kernel, or using the beta, bleeding-edge version. Foley speaks with representatives of Red Hat and Caldera about their plans relative to kernel 2.4, and also includes some comments on… (more…)

Ericsson and Red Hat have unveiled a strategic initiative to develop a broad range of technologies, products, and services for home communications. The first tangible results of the partnership will emerge when the Ericsson Cordless Screen Phone (previewed at CeBIT, last February) begins shipping towards year end. (more…)

LinuxDevices.com has initiated the latest in its Embedded Linux Polls series. The new poll will assist Embedded Linux product, service, and training providers in understanding the needs of developers who use Linux in their embedded system projects.

The question posed is: “How will you learn to develop with Linux?” Respondents are asked to select and prioritize their top three preferred… (more…)

Michael Hall of AllLinuxDevices interviewed Jim Gettys — seminal X developer, and a prominent contributor to the ongoing Open Handhelds development effort at Handhelds.org. Jim discussed the viability of GNOME and KDE on the handheld, the fate of the Compaq Itsy project, and the challenges of porting the X environment to a palmtop platform. (more…)

IBM developerWorks editors Steven Brody and Puneet Gupta, report that IBM is hoping to entice Linux based system developers to begin coding applications for the impending Bluetooth wireless connectivity technology, by releasing the BlueDrekar protocol stack for Linux, and by open-sourcing a driver for the HCI UART transport layer. (more…)

Mary Jo Foley, editor of ZDNet News, observes that Linux champion IBM Corp. — which has become increasingly intent on making Linux pervasive on every platform from handhelds to mainframes — is now bringing the Bluetooth wireless protocol to the open-source operating system. Foley writes . . . (more…)

Coollogic Inc. today announced the Internet Ready 7200, a Linux-based set-top box that offers easy-to-use Internet access with advanced audio and video technologies for improved Web surfing on TVs. The device, which begins shipping immediately, is powered by the company's Coollinux operating system with Java Virtual Machine technology that enables access to and operation of Web-based applications. (more…)

Pittsboro, NC — (press release) — SiliconPenguin.com, a website dedicated to gathering and presenting the most comprehensive index of embedded Linux information on the Internet, is pleased to announce its partnership with LinuxDevices.com to provide relevant, current news on the companies, hardware, software, and projects operating and influencing the expanding embedded Linux marketplace. (more…)