Hidden underneath the software for reading books on the Amazon Kindle is Linux. In fact, BusyBox is found in many embedded computing products.

"BusyBox is a lightweight collection of standard Linux command-line utilities bundled together in a single executable" (ArsTechnica, 2007).

The vast majority of companies that use BusyBox comply with the licensing requirements and make source code available. Amazon, for instance, which uses BusyBox in the new Kindle e-book reader, makes its changes to the source code publicly available.

Other open-source software components in the Amazon Kindle include "Alsa, zlib, busybox, and Freetype" (ArsTechnica, 2007).