Transmeta has launched the Midori Linux Project to facilitate industry participation. The term ‘project’ reflects Transmeta’s commitment to an open invitation to everyone in the operating system’s evolution, the company said.

"Midori Linux will be attractive for any application that can benefit from full Linux compatibility, low power, low thermals, and a small footprint," said David R. Ditzel, vice chairman and chief technology officer.

The company says that this x86 compatible version of Linux is suited for not only mobile applications but also products ranging from Internet appliances to ultra-dense servers. Seeing the benefits of the operating system, such as power conserving and footprint enhancements, Sharp recently announced that it plans to launch a Linux-based PDA.

The California-based company has been tinkering with Midori additions to Linux for more than a year. Those details have now been disclosed. The additions include the following:

• Support for power management hardware that reduces electricity consumption.
• Support for the power-saving features of the Crusoe chip, including support for LongRun technology that matches the chip’s power consumption to how hard it is working.
• A file system that runs in flash memory rather than a hard disk.
• A file system that lives in regular computer memory.

Dan Quinlan, one of Transmeta’s Midori developers, said further improvements are being planned. Enhancements to the current support for the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) that will enable the device to shut down everything except its memory to conserve power.

The company says that Midori is designed to let devices turn on quickly, connect to the Internet and be personalized.

The operating system uses the Xfress86 graphics system which some have complained is too bulky. However, Mr. Quinlan told CNET news the newer version 4 of XFree86 is more modular, so that unneeded parts can be left out. He stressed that using something else would be difficult, since Linux programs are designed to work with XFree86 or other versions of the X Window System standard.

The Midori operating system, graphics system, and basic software fit into about 8MB of memory, he added.