[Updated Jan. 19, 2005] — Green Hills Software has filed an antitrust suit against competitor Wind River, alleging the embedded giant blocked it from effectively marketing development tools for VxWorks, Wind River's flagship embedded operating system. Green Hills also alleges that Wind River slighted its Multi tools in advertising Workbench as the “first and only cross-platform IDE to support VxWorks, Linux, and other in-house operating systems.”

Green Hills announced Linux support for its Multi IDE (integrated development environment) a few days after April Fools Day, 2001, saying the support would arrive later that summer. The company shipped a version of Multi supporting RTLinux from FSMLabs in December of that year, later adding more general Linux support in February of 2003.

Green Hills became an out-spoken Linux detractor in 2004, however, when CEO Dan O'Dowd penned a guest editorial predicting the death of the Linux tools market, and the company issued a series of press releases attacking the viability of open source software in defense applications. At the same time, GHS has continued to market Linux-oriented products, including its “Padded Cell Technology” aimed at availing its proprietary real-time operating systems of the wealth of open source Linux applications.

According to Green Hills, Wind River has also sued Green Hills to terminate a 99-year cooperative agreement between the companies that was signed 10 years ago. The agreement allowed Green Hills to sell tools supporting VxWorks.

Wind River's chief marketing officer, John Bruggeman, said, “Wind River stands behind its decision to file suit against Green Hills.”

 
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