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* Re: [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?
@ 2002-06-19 20:59 jyl087
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread
From: jyl087 @ 2002-06-19 20:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: ecos-discuss

It seems that the CPU vendors would have a vested interest in
keeping eCos alive. Have the eCos principals looked into sponsorship
by a company like Intel?  Or, better yet, maybe a coalition of vendors
such as Arm, Intel, MIPS, etc. It's clear that eCos and open source
tools lower the barrier to entry for embedded systems development,
which in the long run should drive chip sales.

Just a thought... (and probably not original)

/Jim

Tim Drury <tdrury@siliconmotorsports.com>(by way of Tim Drury <tdrury@siliconmotorsports.com>) wrote:

>Since I'm just starting a commercial project based on eCos, I'd just like
>to find out what happens from here?  Will development continue as it
>is or will the code base be moved to sourceforge or some place
>similar?
>
>I'm not worried that RedHat dropped it, but I'd just like to know if there
>is a definite path from here.
>
>And good luck to those that got laid off.
>
>-tim
>
>On Wednesday 19 June 2002 09:40 am, Bruce Smith wrote:
>> http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5933176616.html
>>
>> According to this article it is true. And from what I can tell Red Hat have
>> no eCos programmers left to support existing customers either.
>>
>> Anyone from Red Hat care to comment?
>>
>> regards
>> bruce
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
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>
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>Before posting, please read the FAQ: http://sources.redhat.com/fom/ecos
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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?
@ 2002-06-20  6:37 Bruce Smith
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread
From: Bruce Smith @ 2002-06-20  6:37 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: ecos-discuss

Kjell Svensson wrote:
>I have also with satisfaction noted that some people from the former 
>Cygus/RedHat/eCos developer team is still talking to the list. I surely 
>hope most of these developers will be able to keep on working with 
>open-source eCos.

I agree.

It seems that Lineo has allowed a spinoff of its own RTOS from this article, 
so why not Red Hat?
http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/25696.html

I just find the silence from Red Hat and the developers deafening so 
thoughts and speculation begin to enter into my head. I would have expected 
the developers to announce their startup along with Red Hat's linuxdevices 
article, like Lineo and Quadros Systems did. Why are Red Hat and the 
developers not commenting on this, just to set the record straight? Or is it 
the usual "we do not comment on rumours"?



>I'm myself not sure whether VC-financing is the right thing for embedded 
>open-source projects - I have seen more than one well-working company 
>(maybe Cygnus is a good example?) that has lost much of its business 
>potential when VC:s have come in trying to boost revenues to unhealty 
>levels. And it usually don't seem to be any better if such a company 
>eventually goes off for an IPO...

Or gets bought by Red Hat :-)

Looking back through most of their aquisitions and their layoffs, there 
appears to be a corresponding releationship. While I would expect some 
layoffs, I would expect them to be administrative and not to the level of 
the developers that Red Hat has made.



>
>"Jim" (jyl087@netscape.net) suggested that chip manufacturers should form a 
>coalition group sponsoring further eCos development. While I believe this 
>is a beautiful idea, my experience with silicon manufacturers unfortunately 
>makes me pessimistic to whether this would be realistic.

I agree with you. Silicon vendors are being hard-pressed with the downturn 
in the embedded economy just as much as the rest of us. Even ARM did not 
perform as well as it should have. Pity Red Hat does not have the staying 
power to see this through, or maybe not ;-)



>
>Instead, I'd suggest that we who are today part of the eCos user community 
>join together, founding and sponsoring an eCos startup company who could 
>safely bring a truly open-source eCos further!
>If we move on fast, hopefully we could maybe even attract some of the 
>original eCos developers to this eCos startup before they will have to 
>switch over to other businesses

This is a great suggestion, but I do not think there is a rush. My guess 
from the silence is that Red Hat are have some kind of restraining order on 
the developers. Red Hat have a lot cash and a large legal staff, and large 
corporate bodies just tend to be like that in my experience. Whatever it is, 
I do not think the developers will be able to move fast given these 
restrictions, and news of what is happening to them will eventually leak out 
from Red Hat. I would wait until we start getting responses from these 
engineers either on this list or individually, and then start coordinating 
these efforts.

Tough break guys and hang in there. The community will still be here for you 
:-)



>While I doubt such a company would be able to produce revenue levels 
>interesting enough to a VC, I'm positive that it could safely provide a 
>sound financial ground for a smaller number of developers continuing the 
>eCos development in a truly open-source spirit. And with the help from 
>contributions from a more dedicated "sponsorship community", I believe the 
>speed of furter eCos development could even be improved.
>
>I suggest anyone interested in helping sponsoring an eCos startup 
>(indications from users about being willing to buy servicess from such a 
>startup would probably be the most valuabe item!) tell this to this list, 
>so that we can see it this could be a possible route to take.

You can count on my support and I would certainly recommend this startup to 
the companies I contract for. The eCos code these developers create is 
poetry IMHO, and this startup would certainly be able to contract for a lot 
less than what Red Hat charges. I was quoted $80-100k average for a port by 
their sales staff at ESCW around 2 years back, and did the work in 5 weeks. 
Not quite to the same standards though I suppose :-)



regards
bruce

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* RE: [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?
@ 2002-06-19 23:59 Gustav Kälvesten
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread
From: Gustav Kälvesten @ 2002-06-19 23:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: 'Grant Edwards'; +Cc: ecos-discuss


> We're using eCos in a couple products, and we're wondering 
> where eCos is
> going to reside now that RH has abandonded it. Where is the "official"
> source for eCos going to be?

As I have understood it, the Open Source project will continue to be hosted
by RedHat. Just like many other projects at sources.redhat.com.
One interesting thing is that it seems RedHat will continue to use RedBoot
in their embedded Linux package.

- Gustav

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?
@ 2002-06-19 19:03 Tim Drury
  2002-06-20 18:46 ` Jonathan Larmour
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread
From: Tim Drury @ 2002-06-19 19:03 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: ecos-discuss

Since I'm just starting a commercial project based on eCos, I'd just like
to find out what happens from here?  Will development continue as it
is or will the code base be moved to sourceforge or some place
similar?

I'm not worried that RedHat dropped it, but I'd just like to know if there
is a definite path from here.

And good luck to those that got laid off.

-tim

On Wednesday 19 June 2002 09:40 am, Bruce Smith wrote:
> http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5933176616.html
>
> According to this article it is true. And from what I can tell Red Hat have
> no eCos programmers left to support existing customers either.
>
> Anyone from Red Hat care to comment?
>
> regards
> bruce
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Join the worldÂ’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
> http://www.hotmail.com


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* Re: [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?
@ 2002-06-19  7:28 Bruce Smith
  2002-06-20  0:36 ` Kjell Svensson
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread
From: Bruce Smith @ 2002-06-19  7:28 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: ecos-discuss

Michael Kelly wrote:
>HI,
>
>For what it's worth, I say good riddance.  Red Hat never knew what
>to do with eCOs or even GNU for that matter.  Now that the eCos
>source is GPL'ed (with appropriate modifiers for embedded use), I
>believe it will take off.  I intend to show my support by working with some 
>of the developers to create board/eCos bundles for development
>use.  I encourage all of the board vendors out there to do the same.

I agree. And by developers I assume you mean those laid off?  I still see 
activity from familiar names though no longer with Red Hat email addresses 
:-) Who will maintain eCOs if Red Hat are not?



>
>And as for end users, support eCos by working with the developers
>and funding the projects.  Maybe now they can take on reasonable
>size jobs since they do not have to meet the inflated levels of revenue
>Red Hat expected of each customer.

There were rumours of an eCOs startup. Does anyone know what happened to 
that? Did their VC fall through, or are they still looking for VC?



>
>Anyway, I think an eCos free from Red Hat is good for the embedded
>world and I do not believe it will die off.

I agree. Red Hat were becoming the Microsoft of the Open Source world so 
this can only be a good thing.



regards
bruce



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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?
@ 2002-06-19  6:40 Bruce Smith
  2002-06-19  6:54 ` Michael Kelly
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread
From: Bruce Smith @ 2002-06-19  6:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: ecos-discuss

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5933176616.html

According to this article it is true. And from what I can tell Red Hat have 
no eCos programmers left to support existing customers either.

Anyone from Red Hat care to comment?

regards
bruce


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2002-06-21  3:03 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 16+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2002-06-19 20:59 [ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos? jyl087
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2002-06-20  6:37 Bruce Smith
2002-06-19 23:59 Gustav Kälvesten
2002-06-19 19:03 Tim Drury
2002-06-20 18:46 ` Jonathan Larmour
2002-06-19  7:28 Bruce Smith
2002-06-20  0:36 ` Kjell Svensson
2002-06-20  6:52   ` Scott Dattalo
2002-06-19  6:40 Bruce Smith
2002-06-19  6:54 ` Michael Kelly
2002-06-19 21:35   ` Grant Edwards
2002-06-20  9:20     ` Gary Thomas
2002-06-20  9:25       ` Grant Edwards
2002-06-20  9:29         ` Gary Thomas
2002-06-20 18:43           ` Jonathan Larmour
2002-06-20 20:03       ` Christopher Faylor

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