Jump to content

Lineo

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lineo
IndustryComputer software
Founded20 July 1999;25 years ago(1999-07-20)
Headquarters
United States
Key people
Roger Alan Gross,
Bryan Wayne Sparks,
Brad Walters[1]
ProductsEmbedix,DR-DOS
Number of employees
14 (1999)
50 (2000)[2]
350 (ca. 2001)

Lineowas athin clientandembedded systemscompany spun out ofCaldera Thin Clientsby 20 July 1999.[3][4][5][6][7]

History

[edit]

Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary ofCaldera, Inc.,on 2 September 1998.[8]Caldera Thin Clients' original President and CEO was Roger Alan Gross,[8]who resigned in January 1999. In April 1999, Caldera Thin Clients released the no longer needed sources toGEMandViewMAXunder theGNU General Public License(GPL).[9]

In July 1999,Caldera Thin Clientsdecided on a major refocus onLinuxand consequently changed its name to Lineo.[7]

Lineo licensed a stripped downOpenLinuxdistribution fromCaldera Systemsand named it Embedix.[7]They continued to maintain the former Caldera Thin Clients sales office inTaipeiin 1999. In January 2000, Lineo reincorporated inDelaware.

Lineo's technologies fully owned were well ahead of competitors' products in theembedded systemportion.[7]These technologies included:

This combination of technologies allowed Caldera Thin Clients to offer a fullLinuxoperating systemwith a graphical browser that could run off afloppy disk.[11][12][clarification needed]More importantly the product was unique, and this came from the fact that Lineo's view on the Linuxembeddedmarket was different from other vendors.[7][13]All the other vendors believed that Linux was heavily fragmented and that the solution was to offer Linux features for real time OSes, that is a LinuxAPIfor some other OSes.Red Hatwith its EL/IX created akernelindependentframework(API) which allowed some Linux software to run on theeCoskernel. Lineo did not agree with this assessment and believed the API offered far more advantages and allowed for a fullyhardenedsystem, that is, Lineo utilized a custom Linux kernel. Through the six companies Lineo acquired, they were able to extend the same Linux technology across multiple chip architectures and add real-time capabilities. The acquisitions gave broader Linux support, from very smallmicrocontrollers,through traditional platforms likex86,and up tohigh end,high availabilitysystems.[13]

Lineo's president and CEO, when it reformed under the new name, becameBryan Wayne Sparks,[3]who also had been one of the original founders of Caldera, Inc., in 1994. At the time of its creation, Lineo had 14 employees.

Lineo's main product wasEmbedix,a lightweightLinuxdistribution for embedded systems, licensed fromCaldera Systems,Inc., another subsidiary of Caldera, Inc.[3][8][7]

Another product wasDR-DOS,aDOS–compatibleoperating system,previously developed byCaldera UK Ltd.between 1996 and 1999 and originally acquired fromNovellby Caldera, Inc., on 23 July 1996.[14][7]

Through its acquisitions Lineo also had a range of products in many different product categories.

Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, Lineo eventually ballooned to a peak of about 350 employees, with offices in seven countries. The companies that it acquired or merged with were:

  • Zentropix – realtime Linux specialists
  • Rt-Control Inc. – uClinux creators, very small board (uCdimm) vendors
  • Moreton Bay – VPN/Router vendor (located in Brisbane, Australia)
  • United Systems Engineering (USE) – Japanese Linux consulting company
  • Fireplug – Canadian Linux consulting company (ThinLinux product)
  • Inup – High availability Linux
  • Embedded Power Corporation – Realtime andDSPOS (RTXC product)

Decline

[edit]

In October 2001, Lineo refreshed and expanded a free license for the redistribution and modification of original Digital Research binaries and sources related toCP/MandMP/Mthrough "The Unofficial CP/M Web site"[15][16][17][18]a license originally issued by Caldera in 1997.[19][20][21]

After some assets were auctioned off in April 2002, by July 2002 the company had reformed asEmbedix,Inc.[22]under the lead of Matthew R. Harris, formerly a Summit Law attorney for Caldera, Inc. However, Embedix, Inc. was short-lived and ceased to exist later that year, when theEmbedixdivision was purchased and absorbed byMotorola'sMetrowerks.[23][24][25]

The remaining Digital Research assets fell back to the investorCanopy Group,and parts of the DR-DOS sources were acquired byDeviceLogicsin 2002.

Parts of the embedded modules and uClinux software assets (formerly Rt-Control Inc.) were acquired by Arcturus Networks Inc. in 2002.[26]

The router division (formerly Moreton Bay) spun out as SnapGear, and was later acquired by CyberGuard and thenSecure Computing,and Secure Computing was acquired byMcAfeeand as of 2008 was still producing the SnapGear brand of VPN/routers.

Lineo Japan, a former Japanese acquisition and at one time wholly owned subsidiary, United System Engineers,[27]Inc. (USE), now trades as Lineo Solutions.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"SEC Form S-1 filing".Archivedfrom the original on 2022-02-25.
  2. ^Collins, Lois M.; Nii, Jenifer (2000-01-16)."Settlement fuels Caldera 'family' - Orem company is 'settling up' with spinoffs thriving".Deseret News.Archivedfrom the original on 2019-11-30.Retrieved2019-11-30.
  3. ^abcCaldera, Inc.(1999-07-20)."Embedded Linux moved to top priority at Lineo, Inc. formerly known as Caldera Thin Clients, Inc."(Press release). Lindon, UT, USA.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-06-25.Retrieved2017-06-24.
  4. ^Smith, Tony (1999-07-20)."Caldera Thin Clients renamed to focus on embedded Linux - Lineo, Lineo -- wherefore art thou, Lineo?".The Register.Archivedfrom the original on 2018-08-22.Retrieved2018-02-13.
  5. ^SB (2020-01-08) [2004-04-03]."Development of Linux".Operating system documentation project.Archivedfrom the original on 2019-10-02.Retrieved2020-02-02.
  6. ^"1998 in review".Linux Weekly News.Eklektix, Inc.Archivedfrom the original on 2019-10-12.Retrieved2020-02-02.
  7. ^abcdefgBall, Lyle(1999-10-01) [1999-08-04]. Richardson, Marjorie "Margie" (ed.)."Interview: Lyle Ball, Lineo".Linux Journal.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-12-13.Retrieved2019-06-01.[…] We […] have very deep experience with embeddingDR DOS,and we've been making millions from that. So we are in a unique position: we are not a startup and we have funding. Our DOS product paid for all ourR&Don embeddedLinux.[…] we are […] evolving our focus from an embedded DOS-only company to anembedded Linuxcompany. […]
  8. ^abcCaldera(1998-09-02)."Caldera Creates Two Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries"(Press release). Orem, UT, USA:PRNewswire.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-06-24.Retrieved2017-06-24.
  9. ^Jemmett, Ben A. L. (April 1999)."Caldera releases GEM under the GPL".Deltasoft - GEM News.Archivedfrom the original on 2016-11-07.Retrieved2016-11-07.Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. released the source code forGEMandViewMAXunder theGNU Public Licensein mid April, following years of speculation over GEM's future.Calderabought the GEM sources fromNovellalong with theDR-DOSin 1996, at the time noting that they may develop GEM into a platform for mobile computers and thin clients. However, these plans were dropped, and GEM was instead released into the open-source community.
  10. ^"embedix Browser - Internet connectivity for set-top boxes, kiosks and hand-held devices"(PDF)(Product flyer). Lineo, Inc. 2000-04-26. BREMBRW02.qxd. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2000-08-16.Retrieved2019-07-14.(2 pages)
  11. ^"Download Caldera DR-WebSpyder 2.0 Today! The complete Web browser and E-mail client that fits on one 1.44 MB diskette!".Caldera, Inc.1998. Archived fromthe originalon 1999-05-08.Retrieved2020-02-28.
  12. ^"Download Caldera DR-WebSpyder 2.0".Caldera Thin Clients, Inc.1998-05-10 [1998-02-17].Archivedfrom the original on 2020-02-08.Retrieved2020-02-08.[1][2][3][4](NB.Self-extracting archiveDRWEBDEM.EXE (1387560bytes) contains DRWEBDEM.IMG, a bootable 1.44 MB floppy disk image file.)
  13. ^abLehrbaum, Rick (2000-05-23)."An interview with Lineo CEO, Bryan Sparks".LinuxDevices. Archived fromthe originalon 2000-10-25.Retrieved2008-09-24.
  14. ^Leon, Mark (1996-07-29)."Caldera reopens 'settled' suit, buys DR DOS — Antitrust suit against Microsoft".InfoWorld.News. Vol. 18, no. 31.InfoWorld Publishing Co.p. 3.ISSN0199-6649.Archivedfrom the original on 2020-02-08.Retrieved2020-02-08.[5];Leon, Mark (1996-07-29)."Caldera reopens 'settled' suit, buys DR DOS — Microsoft's response: lawsuit is 'ironic and sad'".Computerworld New Zealand.IDG Communications.ISSN0113-1494.CMPWNZ. Archived fromthe originalon 2018-08-23.Retrieved2018-02-13.
  15. ^Sparks, Bryan Wayne(2001-10-19). Chaudry, Gabriele "Gaby" (ed.)."License agreement for the CP/M material presented on this site".Lineo, Inc.Archived from the original on 2018-09-08.Retrieved2015-09-14.[…] Let this email represent a right to use, distribute, modify, enhance and otherwise make available in a nonexclusive manner theCP/Mtechnology as part of the "Unofficial CP/M Web Site" with its maintainers, developers and community. I further state that as Chairman and CEO of Lineo, Inc. that I have the right to do offer such a license. […]Bryan Sparks[…]{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. ^Chaudry, Gabriele "Gaby" (ed.)."The Unofficial CP/M Web Site".Archivedfrom the original on 2016-02-03.Retrieved2016-02-03.
  17. ^Gasperson, Tina (2001-11-26)."CP/M collection is back online with an Open Source licence - Walk down memory lane".The Register.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-09-01.Retrieved2017-09-01.
  18. ^Swaine, Michael(2004-06-01)."CP/M and DRM".Dr. Dobb's Journal.29(6).CMP Media LLC:71–73. #361. Archived fromthe originalon 2018-09-09.Retrieved2018-09-09.[6]
  19. ^Olmstead, Tim(1997-08-10)."CP/M Web site needs a host".Newsgroup:comp.os.cpm.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-09-01.Retrieved2018-09-09.
  20. ^Olmstead, Tim(1997-08-29)."ANNOUNCE: Caldera CP/M site is now up".Newsgroup:comp.os.cpm.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-09-01.Retrieved2018-09-09.[7]
  21. ^"License Agreement".Caldera, Inc.1997-08-28. Archived from the original on 2018-09-08.Retrieved2015-09-24.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)[8][permanent dead link][9][permanent dead link]
  22. ^Correia, Edward J. (2002-07-01)."Lineo Is Now Embedix - New company releases SDK, dumps RTXC".SD Times:Software Development News. Archived fromthe originalon 2012-04-07.Retrieved2012-04-07.
  23. ^"SPECIAL REPORT: Motorola/Metrowerks acquires embedded Linux pioneer Lineo".Linux Devices.2002-12-17. Archived fromthe originalon 2013-01-28.Retrieved2013-01-28.
  24. ^"Metrowerks to Expand Embedded Linux Tools and Solutions Offerings Through Embedix Asset Acquisition - Company to Add Embedix Tools and Technology to Integrated Development Platforms for PDAs, Smart Handheld Devices, Residential Gateways, Digital TVs".Austin, TX & Lindon, UT, USA:Metrowerks.2002-12-17. Archived fromthe originalon 2002-12-23.Retrieved2002-12-23.
  25. ^"Embedix Technology".Metrowerks.2002-12-23. Archived fromthe originalon 2002-12-23.Retrieved2002-12-23.
  26. ^"uClinux/uCsimm originators form new startup - News - Linux for Devices".Archived fromthe originalon 2013-01-28.Retrieved2013-01-28.
  27. ^"United System Engineers - Lineo@Linux".Archived fromthe originalon 2010-01-30.Retrieved2007-06-19.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lineo&oldid=1223521165"