QNX is now free for anything non-commercial, plus there's an RPi image

Hiya folks!

I'm John from the Developer Relations team at QNX. I'm a loooong time lurker of this forum and excited to make my first post.

I just wanted to let you know that we've kicked off a new program to start opening the doors to QNX like things used to be. Many of you probably used or tinkered with (the very open) QNX back in the day. You can now easily get a free non-commercial license to use the newest QNX. We've also just released some sample apps and a ready-to-go QNX 8.0 quick start target image for Raspberry Pi. So you can get QNX and the development tools for free now to learn, experiment, and build.

It's been a long time in the making, so I'm really excited to get to post about this first phase of the QNX Everywhere initiative. My team and management have open ears, so please share feedback about what more we can do to open things up, be more transparent, and get you what you need to create an awesome embedded QNX project.

Cheers!

QNX is now free for anything non-commercial, plus there's an RPi image
blackberry.qnx.com

To add some details - the source code for QNX was available from 2007 until the takeover by RIM/Blackberry in 2010.

So do you plan to offer access to QNX source code again in the future?

https://www.qnx.com/news/pr_2471_1.html

This is a good move!

In my opinion, any platform should be available for free for any non-commercial purpose. This is how people get started, and this is how the platform proliferates.

I might even suggest going a bit further: provide some limited support for non-commercial users, for example, make it super-easy to file a bug.

But otherwise, it's a win-win for both the free tier (students, hobbyists) and the corporate.

Kudos on your bold undertaking! I've been a side-lined QNX admirer for some time, though not a potential user in most cases. A good next step would be a series of blog posts where the author takes on common types of enthusiast projects and unpacks how QNX's strengths can be applied in those scenarios.

For QNX 8.0, here’s a saved-you-five-minutes direct link to the developer terms associated with noncommercial use:

https://support7.qnx.com/download/download/51624/BB_QNX_Deve...

(I am not your lawyer, this is not legal advice. This is not a comprehensive review, assessment, or summary of possible interpretations of that license. Seek professional counsel from a lawyer before acting on anything stated below.)

These terms open with a ‘user did not have an opportunity to review and agree before binding themselves, their business, and/or their institution’ clause that may well wholly invalidate the entire document in the US, so please review these with your lawyer before use, so that your usage is not put at risk due to legalese overreach.

Academics, only students and faculty of your institution qualify, and your usage under this license will be viewed by your legal team as you signing a binding agreement on behalf of your employer; make sure you’re not exposed to liability through open source contributors or at risk of being fired for misrepresenting yourself as a signing authority for your institution.

Cloud users, your license is restricted to AWS per their terms; use on GCP, Heroku, or any other server instance not under your personal contractual control may result in owing licensing fees.

Only OSI definitions of “Open Source” are permissible here; this disqualifies anyone licensing software under a restrictive non-commercial license from making use of the QNX non-commercial license, as per OSI, all such restrictions are not “open source”.

Social apps are excluded by the “high risk” clause, which prohibits any use under these terms to develop applications that could harm society. Take care not to create viral applications that violate this clause.

They collect and retain all serial numbers identifiable on all hardware you use in association with this product.

Your noncommercial license may be severed unconditionally at any time without recourse, regardless of whether you have faithfully complied with the terms; at which time you may be compelled under contract to provide an undefined ‘certification’ of indeterminate cost that you deleted all QNX code provided to you.

Stay safe, folks.