Midori Linux Expands into Asia [LWN.net]

[This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar]

An unfortunate side effect of the current media frenzy over a certain legal battle is that many interesting development projects get less exposure in the media or get buried in between more "exciting" headlines. Fortunately, there is little doubt that Linux software development continues unabated, despite all the ill-founded attempts to discredit it. Last week's announcement by Transmeta Corporation about an agreement to allow Chinese 2000 Holdings Ltd. to develop and market Midori Linux in Asia might have been one of such missed press releases. But what exactly is Midori Linux and how significant is this announcement?

Midori Linux is a Linux-based distribution for small and embedded devices. The name stands for "green" in Japanese, which becomes rather apparent if you visit the project's home page. Little was known about the beginnings of the Midori project before it was been open sourced and released under GPL in March 2001. However, interest by the open source community in further developing the distribution has been limited and the project appeared to be on its way to extinction after the last release of Midori Linux, version 1.0.0-beta3, nearly 2 years ago. The announcement about the Asian involvement in the project is Transmeta's latest attempt at reviving Midori Linux.

Who is Chinese 2000 Holdings? An investigation on the Hong Kong-based company's background reveals some interesting facts. The company was initiated by one Henry Chu (Chu Bang-fu), a name that is unlikely to ring any bells in the minds of most Western readers, but Mr. Chu is a household name in Taiwan and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world. In fact, he is often credited with initiating the Chinese computer revolution by inventing in 1980 a Chinese input method for computers called "Cang Jie". The Cang Jie input enables users to enter Chinese characters based on the character's shape and structural appearance, rather than its pronunciation. This method greatly reduces the number of key strokes required for inputting Chinese and eliminates common typing errors. While many newer input methods, many of them commercial, were invented in later years, Cang Jie still remains a popular input method of professional typists in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Instead of demanding royalties and enforcing rights, Mr. Chu released his invention into the public domain to be shared without any strings attached. It therefore comes as no surprise that the company Mr. Chu later founded embraced Linux wholeheartedly as a platform for further development. The current range of products developed by Chinese 2000 Holdings include a desktop Linux distribution called Chinese 2000 and various Linux-based electronic devices such as their e-book reader.

This brings us back to Midori Linux and Transmeta's interest to get a foot into the Asian market for embedded devices. While the adoption of embedded devices has been slow in North America and Europe (even the sales of PDAs have reportedly been dropping), Asian consumers appear to be more receptive to these new technologies. More importantly, development of embedded Linux is well advanced in Asia and there are companies in Korea, Taiwan and Japan with many years of experience modifying the Linux Kernel for specialist needs. Korea's Hancom Linux is a prime example; all the latest Linux-based Sharp Zaurus PDAs ship with a modified version of Hancom Office for Zaurus. Many US-based corporations specializing in embedded devices have also been keen on establishing active presence in Asia. MontaVista opened an office in Taiwan in October last year, while RedSonic has set up a substantial network of development offices and distribution partners throughout Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan. If anything, Transmeta's Midori is rather late for the embedded Linux party.

But has the party really started? If it has, it is confined to less visible and specialist applications, perhaps in car manufacturing or medicine, but embedded Linux certainly hasn't had much of an impact on the consumer market. Taiwan's Computex is a good indication of what the Asian hardware manufacturers are up to and the increasing number of e-books, tablet PCs and Internet-enabled mobile telephones over the last two years seem to indicate that these devices are here to stay. Yet, seeing a morning commuter taking out an electronic reading device, instead of a newspaper remains an elusive dream. Take into the account that these types of devices are often expensive, prone to damage, lack common standards and provide limited availability of reading material and it is easy to see why consumers have yet to find compelling reasons to embrace them.

Few will doubt that Linux is an excellent choice for small and embedded electronic devices, capable of providing solutions for specialist needs. But a large scale consumer adoption of electronic devices that many have predicted has yet to happen. Nevertheless, work continues and Midori's latest expansion to Asia is a proof that this field is far from dead.

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