July 1, 2003
Consumer-Electronics Makers Plan Effort for Linux Products
By PHRED DVORAK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO -- In a potential blow to Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest
consumer-electronics companies agreed to promote the development of software to
run appliances based on Linux, a free operating system that competes with
Microsoft's Windows.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Sony Corp. and six other big
consumer-electronics companies on Tuesday set up a forum to encourage the use of
Linux to run gadgets such as audiovisual equipment and mobile phones. The forum
will discuss what kinds of standards are required for Linux-based software on
consumer-electronics products and will evaluate software that comes out, the
companies said.
The six other companies in the group, mostly Japanese firms, are Hitachi Ltd.,
NEC Corp., Philips Electronics NV, Samsung Electronics Co., Sharp Corp. and
Toshiba Corp. International Business Machines Corp. also plans to become a
member, the companies said. Matsushita and Sony had announced initial plans to
cooperate on developing Linux-based software in December.
Microsoft, whose success is founded on its Windows operating system, has been
battling to halt the growing popularity of Linux, an operating system whose core
code is available to anyone who wants it. First developed in 1991 by Finnish
programmer Linus Torvalds, Linux is slowly gaining share in the market for
software that runs servers, a key business area for Microsoft. Microsoft Chief
Executive Officer Steve Ballmer recently singled out free software such as Linux
as one of the company's most significant challenges, and Microsoft has been
campaigning hard to keep governments from switching to Linux-based software to
run their computer operations.
Many consumer-electronics companies such as Sony have shied away from using
Windows-based systems to run equipment such as stereos and cellphones. But
Microsoft is trying to bring its operating system to wide use in household
gadgets as well, particularly through its popular Xbox videogame machine.
Write to Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com
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