Wind River joins Linux group

Wind River, one of the top makers of operating systems for embedded computing devices such as network gear or digital media players, has joined the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, the company said Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. CELF includes many consumer electronics companies--such as Sony, Panasonic, Motorola and LG Electronics--as well as embedded Linux specialists such as Montavista Software and TimeSys.

Wind River, based in Alameda, Calif., long shunned Linux in favor of its own proprietary operating system, VxWorks, but in 2003, it embraced the open-source rival. It's now joined several Linux technology groups, including the Open Source Development Labs and Eclipse.