Facebook and Arm join Yocto Project as platinum members for embedded Linux development

Last week, the Yocto Project announced that Arm and Facebook will be joining the project as new platinum members. The Yocto Project is an open source collaboration project (originally an Intel Project) that was launched back in 2011. It aims to allow developers to create customized Linux-based systems for embedded products.

The Yocto Project comes with a flexible set of tools and offers a space where embedded developers across the globe share technologies, software, and best practices. This helps them build tailored Linux images for embedded and Internet of Things (IOT) devices.

According to Rhonda Dirvin, Senior Director, Marketing, Embedded & Automotive Line of Business, Arm, “The Yocto Project provides an excellent framework to facilitate embedded Linux development, and through our membership we will collaborate with the community to further advance Yocto Project’s custom open-source distribution.”

Earlier, Linaro, which consolidates and optimizes open source software and tools for the Arm architecture, was considered a competitor of Yocto Project. However, that’s not entirely the case as both the groups have become complementary and Linaro’s Arm toolchain can be used within Yocto Project.

Facebook's role in the Yocto Project and embedded Linux

Facebook's role has been minor when it comes to embedded Linux. Facebook is said to join the Yocto Project either because of a new project or may be Facebook just wanted to expand its open source presence.

“The Yocto Project is the basis for important open source and embedded firmware initiatives. We are happy to lend our support to the Yocto Project community, and look forward to joining with other members in this important work”, said Aaron Sullivan, Director of Hardware Engineering at Facebook

The Yocto Project currently has more than 22 active members. “We are delighted to welcome Arm and Facebook to the Yocto Project at the Platinum level. With their continued support, we are furthering the embedded systems ecosystem and the Yocto Project as a whole.” mentioned Lieu Ta, Senior Director of Governance and Business Operations at Wind River and Chair of the Yocto Project Advisory Board.

Yocto Project seems to be continually growing with Facebook and Arms joining in. Yocto will benefit from Facebook and Arm’s technical and financial support to consolidate it as a “secure, stable and adaptable industry standard”.

For more information be sure to check out the official Yocto Project blog post.

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