BlueZ: The Official Linux Bluetooth Protocol Stack

Developed by Max Krasnyansky in 2001, BlueZ stands strong in being the official Linux Bluetooth protocol stack. It was accepted by Linus Torvalds, the main man behind the Linux line of operating systems, and was included into the 2.4.6 kernel of Linux release. By year 2004, January 15, Marcel Holtmann stood as the head in maintaining the BlueZ, months after it was included into the 2.4.6 kernel of Linux operating systems.

In order to gain a grasp as to what BlueZ is, and why it is a big Bluetooth deal, a little understanding of Linux is required.

Linux is basically an open source operating system, maintained and updated by various programmers from all over the world. Since it is open source, it is basically free, with various Linux distributions, which are operating system packages of Linux, being released into the market, defining the various Linux types that are available.

The more popular of Linux distributions would be Red Hat Linux, Mandrake Linux, Debian, OpenSuSE Linux and SuSE Linux.

With BlueZ, the world of Bluetooth technology is now available to Linux users. As Bluetooth has now become the standard when talking about wireless communications between various Bluetooth equipped devices, it really isn't a wonder why BlueZ even exists, as there are a number of Linux users all over the world who would want to have access to the Bluetooth world.

Support and maintenance of the core protocols and layers of Bluetooth technology is easily provided for by BlueZ for Linux run computer systems. Utilizing a modular implementation, BlueZ is efficient and flexible, two qualities which has defined the Linux kernel as a powerful operating system.

Symmetric multi processing states, multithreaded data processing, real hardware abstraction, standard socket interface to all layers, device and service level security support and support for various and/or multiple Bluetooth devices, are simply among the many interesting, as well as practical, features boasted by BlueZ.

Working perfectly on many supported Linux architectures, the BlueZ kernel modules, utilities and libraries are known to run compatible with single and multi processor systems, such as: Intel and AMD x86 systems, SUN SPARC 32/64bit, AMD64 and EM64T (x86-64), Intel StrongARM and XScale, PowerPC 32/64 bit, Motorola DragonBall and Hitachi/Renesas SH processors.

All in all, the BlueZ is the "gateway" for Linux operating systems into the realm of Bluetooth technology. The benefits boasted, the wireless convenience of Bluetooth in a Linux operating system, all possible because of BlueZ.