Embedded pioneer and MontaVista founder Jim Ready has clarified his company's marketing messages regarding the challenges of using Linux without commercial support in embedded systems. The clarification follows an attack by GreenHills CEO Dan O'Dowd, who opportunely misconstrued the messaging in order to ridicule embedded Linux in general, Ready suggests.

The attack came in May of this year, when Embedded.com published a hit piece called “Embedded Linux: With friends like these, who needs enemies?” Written by Dan O'Dowd, CEO of MontaVista competitor GreenHills Software and serial Linux hater, the essay suggested that even commercial Linux providers like MontaVista and Wind River find it difficult to use Linux as an embedded OS.

In a detailed interview with Linux Weekly News, Ready explains where the messaging came from, and what it was actually meant to express. Given that Ready is elaborating on his company's marketing message, the interview gets a little salesy, but there's still some interesting observations on, well, the challenges of using Linux and other iterative operating systems in devices, among other topics of interest.

The entertaining interview can be found in the June 12th issue of LWN, here. The original O'Dowd piece should be available here.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.