Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

blackberry.qnx.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 380 posts

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

#321

Post by xvilka »

xarope wrote: post #184
vundercind wrote: post #96

QNX and BeOS were the only operating systems I tried in the early '00s that could make old single-core mid-90s Pentiums feel excellent and snappy to use. Far, far better than any Windows version, or Linux. I assume it's mostly scheduler stuff and much better multimedia stacks, in both cases. I always hoped the operating systems of the future would feel more like that. Closest we've got is probably iOS and it cheats b…

I feel sad that people don't remember OS/2 anymore. It was also able to run multiple dos windows, have video running in the background etc, and that was in the late 90's.

There is still ArcaOS[1] that can run OS/2 applications.

[1] https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/

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

#322

Post by jraph »

lolinder wrote: post #305
jraph wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I think the agplv3 behaves like the gplv3 for programs that are not network services. With the twist that if your non networked, agplv3 program happens to contain code that's interesting to build a network service, this code can only be used under the agplv3 :-)

> this code can only be used under the agplv3 :-) This code can only be used to make a derived work under the AGPLv3. What constitutes a derived work is still... complicated. I wouldn't risk this in a production setting for a real business just out of caution, but my reading of the license would suggest that you'd be perfectly fine to wrap AGPLv3 code in a web service and then have your own code interact with that we…

> I wouldn't risk this

This seems like a technical workaround for a legal requirement. Indeed, that seems risky xD

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

#323

Post by xvilka »

pjmlp wrote: post #291
talldayo wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even understand how you can point to LLVM as an example of this failing. GCC is still alive and well, and perfectly suited for the task it was always intended to fill. People that wanted a commercial C compiler always had the option to purchase one at-cost, GCC was intended as an alternative to that process, not the alternative. It may be hard to remember, but less than 50 years ago squabbles over compiler li…

Also after LLVM came to be, GCC gained on its official collection Go, D, and Modula-2 frontends.

And, hopefully, Rust soon as well[1][2][3].

[1] https://rust-gcc.github.io/

[2] https://github.com/Rust-GCC/gccrs

[3] https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/11/07/gccrs-an-alternative-c...

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

#324

Post by Rochus »

andreww591 wrote: post #246
tcbawo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this was submitted to HN a couple times over the last few years and has not received any comments. Can you describe the goals and status of this project? Does it fit into any larger ecosystem? Is it a research project or intended for eventual mainstream adoption?

Basically I'm trying to write a better Linux than Linux and a better QNX than QNX, at least for certain use cases that is. At least initially, my primary focus is on workstation/enthusiast desktops and higher-end embedded systems (some types of servers, especially ones where high security is important, are also a focus as well but maybe not quite as much for now). Pure consumer desktops aren't really much of a priori…

Interesting, but sounds like much more than a lifetime achievement. As far as I understand, it is written in Rust; this raises the question of whether there are significant differences to Redox OS, which seems to share most of the goals. But sel4 on the other hand is written in C; are you going to migrate sel4 to Rust?

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

#325

Post by Rochus »

graymatters wrote: post #242

QNX is squeezed from above by Linux, especially as real time patches have finally been fully accepted. And from below by FreeRTOS and Zephyr. Current attempt to open source is a desperate move by QNX as their market share is disappearing. Why would anyone in their right mind step on the same landmine, called QNX, which already pulled a rug from under the developers feet once? Absolutely no trust in QNX ecosystem. Sav…

> Current attempt to open source is a desperate move by QNX as their market share is disappearing

Are you sure they want to open source it? Is this just an assumption, or can you provide a reference?

I actually tried to find out whether the source code of the kernel etc. is included in the free version they provide, but they require to install a license manager on my machine, so I stopped; and it doesn't look as if it was open-source when there is a license manager (would be very easy to get around).

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

#327

Post by Rochus »

JohnAtQNX wrote: post #39
simlevesque wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are the brains of a ton of cars on the market, like all Ford cars. Used for complex calculations like automatic transmissions.

I think we're at something like 235 millions cars on the road today with QNX inside. The volume blows my mind. We're also hiding inside lots of healthcare products, industrial control systems, etc. There's lots of interesting key differences between something based on Linux, for example, and QNX. Worth digging into if you're interested in these things. My colleague wrote a short ebook and the intro has a good summary…

> My colleague wrote a short ebook and the intro has a good summary

Can you recommend books or papers on how the kernel works, and what makes it better than e.g. L4/sel4 or Mach?

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

#328

Post by tzs »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #69
Animats wrote: post #45

If only you could believe them. QNX has been "opened" twice before. Each time, there was a rug pull, and it went closed again. Before the first rug pull, open source groups routinely added QNX to their target list. There was a Firefox for QNX. Eclipse had QNX as a target. GCC and most of the Gnu command line tools could be built for QNX. There was a desktop environment, Photon. I used that as a primary desktop for th…

> Now, if QNX is serious about this, the way to go is to use the licensing model Epic uses for Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is behind most AAA game titles. The basic terms are that you can download the source and use it for anything you want, and there's no charge until you get the first $1 million in revenue from your product. Then Epic takes a 5% royalty.[2] This has been extremely successful for Epic. There's not…

> One option: Dual-license as GPLv3 (the 3 is important!) or commercial license. Hobbyists and FOSS projects will be quite happy to use a GPLv3 OS. The big commercial users - traditionally cars and other embedded uses - will not want to be legally obligated to give users the ability to install custom firmware (which GPLv3 basically requires), so they'll still pay for it. Everyone wins.

GPLv3's protection against locked systems isn't as strong as people often think it is.

In the case of cars at some point the makers are going to realize that instead of including firmware with all the features the car can support they can switch to shipping the car with a more basic firmware that just has built in support for basic car features and has an app store.

They can then put all the other features in apps that you have to buy (or subscribe to).

If that basic firmware is locked down so it can't be replaced by the user then they do indeed after avoid using GPLv3 for any code in that firmware.

The GPLv3 provisions about locking thing down do not apply to apps downloaded from an app store. They designed those previsions to stop what Tivo was doing, which was ship with a locked down operating system, and they wrote fairly narrow terms that don't cover much outside that case.

In particular, they apply when you convey object code of a GPLv3 work in, with, or specifically for use in a "User Product" and that conveyance is part of a transaction "in which the right of possession and use of the User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a fixed term".

I.e., sell (or rent or lease etc) hardware that includes GPLv3 code and you have to provide a way to replace that code with modified versions. Sell (or rent etc) GPLv3 programs separately from hardware and then GPLv3 is neutral on locking it down.

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

#329

Post by workfromspace »

xarope wrote: post #184
vundercind wrote: post #96

QNX and BeOS were the only operating systems I tried in the early '00s that could make old single-core mid-90s Pentiums feel excellent and snappy to use. Far, far better than any Windows version, or Linux. I assume it's mostly scheduler stuff and much better multimedia stacks, in both cases. I always hoped the operating systems of the future would feel more like that. Closest we've got is probably iOS and it cheats b…

I feel sad that people don't remember OS/2 anymore. It was also able to run multiple dos windows, have video running in the background etc, and that was in the late 90's.

I had OS/2 Warp 4 and it was one of the best pieces of software I ever had: from the box design to contents, included software and its quality; and even voice recognition.
Post reply on HN