Intel acquired Wind River for $884 million to boost Linux adoption in the Intel Atom market. Obviously Intel sees Wind River's embedded Linux market as new opportunity for its Atom processor family. There's also buzz about multi-core processor offerings from the two in the near future.
I see this as a major blow to what we techies have historically referred to as the Wintel market. Wintel refers to Intel systems running Microsoft's Windows software. We frequently talk about Wintel boxes and Wintel architecture and I'm sure that some of that will continue but now, with this acquisition, we'll soon refer to devices as Lintel to distinguish their Linux operating system from Windows on a particular piece of hardware.
Will Lintel replace Wintel completely?
It's possible with this acquisition.
I'm looking forward to an AMD-Microsoft agreement now to counter this one. AMD offers virtualization enhancements, embedded processor technology and some of the finest processing power in the business as well but Intel has always had the edge. They (Intel) is Master and Commander of the CPU manufacturer space. AMD is, and always has been, a distant second.
Wind River is a good acquisition for Intel. This one will work for both companies and propel them into new markets and advance Linux into mainstream devices.
Who else needs to watch out for Lintel? Apple. Apple has long dominated the consumer gadget market with its iPhone, iPod and iTunes but methinks there be some significant competition on the horizon for this near Apple-monopolized market.
What do you think of the acquisition? Do you think that Lintel will unseat Wintel or even Apple?
