Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 19:33:08 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wpeters@xylan.com> To: feedback@techweb.com Subject: Re: Open source code smooths RTOS design Message-ID: <37A8E9D4.AAF7F774@xylan.com>
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Re: http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EET19990726S0076 Your recent article on applications of Open Source code to embedded projects was no eye-opener to me. Xylan products have used open source code for years; examples include the TCP/IP stack, SNMP, LDAP, xntpd, gated, and numerous others. Your article carefully skirted the major issue relating to the use of Linux in embedded applications: the Gnu Public License. A strict interpretation of the GPL as it applies to Linux in embedded products requires developers to release as GPL code every enhancement they make to the Linux system. At the very least this means users contractually *must* release and device drivers or board support modifications to the Linux community, even if they involve custom hardware. At worst, it *may* mean you must release all of the source code to your project to the community. We will never know for sure until the GPL has been tested in one or more court cases. In the meantime, FreeBSD and its PicoBSD derivative provide all the advantages of an embedded Linux application with none of the fears. NetBSD provides platform portability wider than even Linux. All are distributed under a permissive license very familiar to embedded developers; most TCP/IP stacks in existence are derived from Berkeley code. For users with real-time requirements, the RTMX OS, derived from OpenBSD, provides POSIX realtime extensions to a highly secure version of BSD. Users who wish to have the safety net of commercial support, BSDI provides their eBSD platform and the BEST (BSDI Embedded System Technology) program for embedded developers. While vendors who use BSD code are encouraged to contribute enhancements and modifications back to the source base, for their own good as well as that of the community, they are not required to share any code they do not wish to. Your readers should also know about the growing number of Open Source RTOSs being created. RTEMS, originally developed for the US Army and moved to the public sector under a technology transfer program, is now developed and distributed by its creator, OAR Corp., under the GPL. Cygnus Support, famous for providing support contracts for GNU tools and for being the guiding light of the GCC compiler for the past several years, offers their eCOS embedded system, which features uITRON compatability, under a license similar to the Netscape Public License. eCOS has been adopted by a number of chip and board vendors and features canned support for a number of evaluation boards for embedded ARM, PowerPC, and SPARC processors. For more information see http://www.freebsd.org/, http://www.netbsd.org/, http://www.freebsd.org/~picobsd/picobsd.html, http://www.rtmx.com/, http://www.openbsd.org/, http://www.bsdi.com/products/eBSD/, http://www.oarcorp.com/rtems.html, and http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos/. -- Wes Peters Who's going to save you Principal Engineer When you're a slave to Xylan Corporation A diamond as big as the Ritz wpeters@xylan.com -- Jimmy Buffett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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