NUREMBERG, GERMANY:MontaVista Software, Inc., the leader in embedded Linux commercialization has announced Meld, a new community for developers of embedded Linux devices.

Meld provides a forum for developers of all skill levels to connect and share information, ideas and software around embedded Linux designs, accelerating their development efforts and delivery of commercial products.

"Linux is based on the idea of sharing knowledge, and there are strong underpinnings of this throughout the Linux community, yet there isn't a place for embedded Linux developers to go to collaborate and experience that sense of community," said Joerg Bertholdt, vice president of Marketing at MontaVista Software.

"Now, through Meld we want all embedded Linux device developers to come together to share their knowledge, collaborate with one another, and speed the design of innovative, commercial solutions running on embedded Linux. A strong community benefits all of its members, and we believe this forum will allow Linux to grow and prosper in embedded devices," added Bertholdt.

"VDC expects that the embedded Linux development community should be particularly receptive to this new forum, especially given the increasing interest in Linux device development and the prominent position of online social networking in today's society," said Chris Rommel, Analyst in VDC's Embedded Software and Tools Practice.

Developing embedded Linux systems is a complex process. Challenges facing the embedded device developer include:

* Finding the right information among different resources such as the internet, peers and manuals
* Determining if the information they do have is credible and complete
* Finding someone with the expertise and willingness to understand, and help solve embedded Linux design challenges

Meld addresses these challenges by bringing embedded Linux developers together in an online community. In Meld developers can:

* Participate in discussions groups to collaborate on difficult design problems, sharing their expertise
* Use Meld's People Map to find others who share similar interests in architectures, host OS and other topics
* Identify subject matter experts and leverage their knowledge and experience to solve their own design challenges

Sponsored by MontaVista, Meld is a non-commercial community open to any embedded Linux developer who wants to participate.

There are a number of different open source communities in existence today, but they focus on specific projects or technologies. The goal of Meld is to help the embedded Linux developer deliver better commercial embedded Linux products to market faster and more efficiently through the sharing and exchange of information within the community.