Open Source Software Product Lines

Embedded industries have invested a lot in the introduction of software product lines in their software development. In addition, using open source software appears to be a profitable way to obtain good software. This is also applicable for organizations doing product line engineering. On the other hand, because of the diverse use of open source software, product line development is an attractive way of working in open source communities. In fact, the configuration mechanisms used in open source communities may be applicable within software product lines as well. In addition, product line organizations are usually involved in distributed development, which works very efficiently within open source communities. However, at present, there is limited interaction between the open source and product line development communities. Our aim is to explore what the two communities can learn from each other and to develop a better understanding of how the two communities can benefit from each other.