Good Fork, Bad Fork — Examining the Limits of Open Source S/W in the Embedded Market
Talk abstract: Some have expressed concern about the potential for Linux forking (fragmentation). In his presentation, Mr. Bird asserted that the Open Source developer community cannot fulfill all of the Embedded Market's needs, because “network effects” which drive Open Source… development tend to be greatly reduced in many areas of embedded technology. Although forks that needlessly diminish the “network effects” of community development are undesirable, forks that specialize Linux for markets where it could not otherwise go are good (they are, as Linus says, “non-overlapping”), and should be encouraged instead of avoided and feared.

Speaker bio: As Lineo's CTO, Tim Bird is accountable for the architecture, design and development of Lineo's embedded operating system platforms and applications. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Computer Science from Brigham Young University. Bird began his career as an engineer at Novell, Inc., where, in 1993, he began working with Linux. In 1995, he joined Caldera, Inc. as a senior developer. In 1998, Bird helped create the Caldera division that eventually became Lineo, Inc. He is also co-author of “Special Edition: Using OpenLinux” by MacMillan Publishing.

Talk slides: here

 
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