Matsushita Electric Industrial, best known for Panasonic-brand products, has selected Linux as one of its preferred system platforms, and has signed a deal with MontaVista that will allow it to use all three editions of MontaVista Linux for future electronic products. MontaVista has made similar deals with NEC and Samsung.

MontaVista likely teamed up with Matsushita through the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), an industry consortium founded in July of 2003 by Matsushita, Sony and six other Asian consumer electronics giants. MontaVista first endorsed CELF when the organization formed, and was an early member, welcomed into CELF in August.

At the same time it joined CELF, MontaVista also announced a deal with Samsung that promised to bring MontaVista Linux to “many next generation Samsung devices.” Two weeks ago, MontaVista announced a similar deal with another CELF member, NEC.

Since joining CELF, MontaVista has made numerous key contributions. CELF Linux is based on the same kernel version as MontaVista Linux.

Matsushita's Panasonic-brand products include consumer home appliances, audio-visual equipment, factory automation machines, and car electronics systems. The deal with MontaVista covers all three of MontaVista's Linux distributions, including Professional Edition, Carrier Grade Edition, and Consumer Electronics Edition.

MontaVista says its version of Linux already appears in a number of Panasonic devices, including the Broadnow broadband TV tuner, pictured at right. Linux enjoys considerable momentum in Asia, where a March survey of EE Times Asia readers suggested Linux is the preferred choice of embedded developers.

Kelly Herrell, senior vice president, Strategic Operations, MontaVista Software. “Matsushita was an early investor in MontaVista Software, and this agreement is further testament to its faith in our company, products and technology.”

 
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