Nothing lasts forever. Not you. Not me. And certainly not consortia.

Consortia invariably die with a whimper rather than a bang, unless they merge with another organization (many such mergers are in fact arranged marriages entered into as a face-saving alternative to simply closing the doors). So it happens that the Embedded Linux Consortium has come to the end of its time fifteen minutes in the sun, after transferring the ELC Platform Specification to the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL).

But unlike most organizations that die quietly in the dark, the ELC has been fortunate to find an unnamed valedictorian at LinuxDevices.com who has provided a very nice obituary/interview with Murray Shohat, ELC co-founder and executive director. Besides telling the tale of the rise and fall of the ELC, the piece also provides a nice summary of ELC’s accomplishments, and provides lots of links to LinuxDevices.com interviews and stories from the past that summarize ELC’s path from the initial Embedded Linux Consortium Proposed story dated December 3, 1999 through to a penultimate Executive Director Interview: Murry Shohat of the Embedded Linux Consortium dated April 21, 2004.

Embedded Linux Consortium, Hail and Farewell. Requiscat In Pace