Linux start-up gets more funding

MontaVista Software, the Sunnyvale start-up battling to bring Linux open-source software to the consumer electronics market, said it has raised an additional $7 million in venture capital and that it will be profitable this year. The development is significant because it signals continued headway by Linux in pushing into a market that has so far been dominated by a single player. While Linux has made progress in undermining Microsoft's proprietary software in areas like corporate networks, the consumer electronics software market is dominated by another incumbent, Wind River Systems.

Now, Wind River is on the ropes, having lost money for most of last year and still reeling from a move by many major consumer electronics players to embrace MontaVista and open-source versions of embedded software. ``We have a superior position,'' said Jim Ready, chief executive of MontaVista.

The surest sign that MontaVista is onto something: Wind River has unveiled its own Linux strategy recently.

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