[ECOS] Red Hat backs away from eCos?

[Bruce Smith]

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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