EE Times editor Junko Yoshida puts the recent moves by Sony, Matsushita, and other Japanese consumer electronics powerhouses to develop a Linux-based consumer device operating system in perspective, in terms of its representing a significant movement away from proprietary embedded operating systems. Yoshida writes . . .

“Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers are backing away from efforts to push proprietary operating systems into wider use and are turning instead to open-source OSes, specifically Linux. The retreat underlines the failure of proprietary OS strategies for consumer electronics . . . “

“Consumer electronics companies could have opted for a closed architecture such as Microsoft's Windows OS, but many Japanese companies are wary of paying “a disproportionate amount of money” to an OS supplier, Husson said. The turn to an open-source OS marks the end to a dream Japanese companies nurtured for many years of creating a proprietary OS that would dominate the living room and dictate the development of next-generation digital consumer electronics . . .”

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