Like any build tool (make, ant, jam), the OpenEmbedded build tool BitBake controls how to build things and the build dependencies. But unlike single project tools like make it is not based on one makefile or a closed set of inter-dependent makefiles, but collects and manages an open set of largely independent build descriptions (package recipes) and builds them in proper order. To be more precise: OpenEmbedded is a set of metadata used to cross-compile, package and install software packages. OpenEmbedded is being used to build and maintain a number of embedded Linux distributions, including OpenZaurus, Ångström, Familiar and SlugOS. The primary use-case of OpenEmbedded are: Handle cross-compilation. Handle inter-package dependencies Must be able to emit packages (tar, rpm, ipk) Must be able to create images and feeds from packages Must be highly configurable to support many machines, distribution and architectures. Writing of metadata must be easy and reusable Together with BitBake, OpenEmbedded satisfies all these and many more. Flexibility and power have always been the priorities.

OpenEmbedded was invented and founded by the creators of the OpenZaurus project. At this time the project had pushed buildroot to its limits. It supported the creation of ipk packages, feeds and images and had support for more than one machine. But it was impossible to use different patches, files for different architectures, machines or distributions. To overcome this shortcoming OpenEmbedded was created. After a few months other projects started using OpenEmbedded and contributing back. On 7 December 2004 Chris Larson split the project into two parts: BitBake, a generic task executor and OpenEmbedded, the metadata for BitBake.