The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CE Linux Forum or CELF) was a non-profit organization to advance the Linux operating system as an open-source software platform for consumer electronics (CE) devices. It had a primarily technical focus, working on specifications, implementations, conferences and testing to help Linux developers improve Linux for use in CE products.[1] It existed from 2003 to 2010.[2]
History
The forum was an outgrowth of a joint project between Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (using the brand name Panasonic). CELF was founded in June 2003 by those plus six more consumer electronics companies, Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation.[3] It was seen at least partially as a reaction to the use of Windows CE for consumer electronics.[4]
Phillips and Samsung founded a group with similar aims in November 2004, promoting a universal home application programming interface called the UHAPI Forum.[5] The UHAPI was presented to the CE Linux Forum in 2005.[6]
Activities
CELF initiatives included:
Members submit technical output directly back to the relevant open source project (for example, by sending enhancements to the Linux kernel directly to the Linux kernel mailing list, or to an appropriate technology- or architecture-specific mailing list.) Collected information and forum output was primarily located on a wiki for embedded developers.[1] The content of CELF's wiki was included on another site called eLinux.org, created by Tim Riker in 2006.[18] As of 2007, CELF had the following technical working groups:
The CE Linux Forum sponsors embedded projects. Amongst others the LinuxTiny patches and the LogFS and SquashFS flash file systems have been pushed to mainline Linux.
The forum sponsored the Embedded Linux Conference since 2005. Originally started as a conference in the US, a yearly ELC Europe started in 2007. in 2007 it was hosted with the Real-time Linux Workshop in Linz, Austria; in 2008 with the NLUUG in Ede, Netherlands; and in 2009 with Embedded Systems Week in Grenoble.[19]
See also
- Linux Foundation - parent organization
- Digital Living Network Alliance, another group from 2004 to 2017
External links
- CELF Website
References
- Front Page CE Public Wiki, November 26, 2008, retrieved October 8, 2021^
- Sean Michael Kerner. Linux Foundation Merges with Consumer Electronics Linux Forum Datamation, October 27, 2010, retrieved October 8, 2021^
- Eight consumer electronic companies establish forum