[ECOS] Licensing terms

[ECOS] Licensing terms

[Grant Edwards]

I just got off the phone with somebody from Express Logic (the vendor
of ThreadX), and he claimed that if you want to ship product with eCOS
you have to pay money to Cygnus.  I've read the eCOS license and it
sure doesn't look like that's the case to me (standard I Am Not a
Lawyer Disclaimer applies).

He also told me that eCOS is a revised version of another, older OS
called Helos (or something like that).

I've never heard either of these claims before.  

The claim about being "free for development but you have to pay when
you ship product" sounds like the VRTXoc license from Mentor.  I asked
him if that was what he was talking about, and he hadn't heard of that
devlopment.

I don't know where the "Helos" business came from.  Anybody else
here anything like that.

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com

Re: [ECOS] Licensing terms

[Mark Galassi]

    Grant> I just got off the phone with somebody from Express Logic
    Grant> (the vendor of ThreadX), and he claimed that if you want to
    Grant> ship product with eCOS you have to pay money to Cygnus.
    Grant> I've read the eCOS license and it sure doesn't look like
    Grant> that's the case to me (standard I Am Not a Lawyer
    Grant> Disclaimer applies).

The guy (a salesman?) was trying to mislead you.  Your reading is
correct.  Richard Stallman (among others) has been through the eCos
license and has said that it was an acceptable "free software"
license.  This means that anyone can make a business out of eCos
without paying royalties.

The only shortcoming of the license is that there is no clause for GPL
compatibility, so if you want to distribute an eCos kernel enhanced
with GPLed code, you can't do it without getting various parties to
make exceptions to their licensing.

    Grant> He also told me that eCOS is a revised version of another,
    Grant> older OS called Helos (or something like that).

Nope: eCos was designed and developed from scratch.  Some of the eCos
designers might have been involved with Helios, but the design, goals
and implementation of the OSes are completely different.

    Grant> I don't know where the "Helos" business came from.  Anybody
    Grant> else here anything like that.

I suspect he had heard of Helios and was using it to create FUD.

Re: [ECOS] Licensing terms

[Paul Beskeen]

Hi Grant,

> I just got off the phone with somebody from Express Logic (the vendor
> of ThreadX), and he claimed that if you want to ship product with eCOS
> you have to pay money to Cygnus.  I've read the eCOS license and it
> sure doesn't look like that's the case to me (standard I Am Not a
> Lawyer Disclaimer applies).

Talk about FUD. You have read the CEPL correctly - I can confirm that there
are absolutely no license fees or royalties associated with shipping a
product containing eCos. The CEPL does however require that you include a
reference to the use of eCos in your product's documentation, and we also
expect that you will make any changes to CEPL'd sources available to the
community.

Note that unlike other open source licenses, such as the standard GPL, the
CEPL is not viral in nature. It places no restrictions on your own
application code, and absolutely does not force you to place your application
into the public domain.

See http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos/license-overview.html for more
information on the CEPL.

Instead of royalties or license fees, Cygnus makes its money from eCos by
means of support contracts, custom development, porting, the sale of
additional eCos components, eCos development kits, and associated development
tools. All of these services and products are completely optional.

> He also told me that eCOS is a revised version of another, older OS
> called Helos (or something like that).

FUD #2. I think he is probably referring to Helios and is again incorrect.
Although Cygnus employs engineers that have worked on the Helios OS in former
lives(tm), eCos is a completely new development designed and developed from
scratch.

Cheers, Paul.

Re: [ECOS] Licensing terms

[Grant Edwards]

On Fri, Oct 29, 1999 at 08:43:35PM +0100, Paul Beskeen wrote:
> Hi Grant,
> 
> > I just got off the phone with somebody from Express Logic (the vendor
> > of ThreadX), and he claimed that if you want to ship product with eCOS
> > you have to pay money to Cygnus.  I've read the eCOS license and it
> > sure doesn't look like that's the case to me (standard I Am Not a
> > Lawyer Disclaimer applies).
> 
> Talk about FUD. You have read the CEPL correctly - I can confirm that there
> are absolutely no license fees or royalties associated with shipping a
> product containing eCos. 

The guy's a putz.  Since knowing the competition is basic to sales, he
is either incompetent or dishonest.  Probably both.

> FUD #2. I think he is probably referring to Helios and is again incorrect.
> Although Cygnus employs engineers that have worked on the Helios OS in former
> lives(tm), eCos is a completely new development designed and developed from
> scratch.

That's what I thought.

Thanks.

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com