Embedded Linux Consortium is Dead

Interesting news from alllinuxdevices.com

"The Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) filed dissolution papers with the state of California yesterday, ending a five year run promoting embedded Linux and developing standards for it. The ELC's primary piece of intellectual property--the ELC Platform Specification--has been transferred to the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs), which could move the standard forward, given sufficient member interest.

The Embedded Linux Consortium, ELC, finally dissolved this week. The ELC was formed in 2000 with the mission to help standardize an embedded Linux platform specification. This included defining an API specification so that middleware and application developers could reuse each others work with a high degree of compatibility. From its original 165 members, before dissolution the consortium only maintained 7 members.

It would appear to me that the embedded Linux community is fragmented and fragile. According to the ELC, the remaining work will be passed on to the OSDL, the committee responsible for overseeing the Carrier Grade Linux standard and home of Linus Torvalds. 

However, because interest will be needed to continue ELC work within the OSDL and since there has been little interest thus far (given that the number of members dropped to just 7 before dissolution), the future for the standard is most certainly bleak.

- Mike