[ECOS] Re: Is eCos project still alive?

[Loginov Alexander]

Chris, Frank & Bob,

Thanks for your understanding. 

Let me explain my logic. I remember how eCos community was active 5-6
years ago. Now when my company decided to use some open-source software
for development of CNC machine control (before we relied on commercial
products only) I decided to re-visit eCos project web-pages after long
absence. And what do people like me see here?

1) The latest release is nearly 5 years old.
2) The news on the page were updated 1.5 years ago. Moreover, in last 3
years they were updated only twice. 
3) Then I checked the mailing list. I went to ecos-devel list because
according to its title it had to demonstrate the real development
progress. What did I see? In October there was only 1 post (another one
was ad in German), in September 3 posts.

Then would it be strange for any person to ask the following question:
"Is the project dead?" And that was exactly what I asked the mailing
list. Such questions are very important when you select the software for
commercial products whose life span is normally ten-twenty years.

I can ensure that I had no any intention to insult anyone from eCos
community. I really appreciate guys who spend their spare time
developing some amazing things available for everyone. But there should
be no fanaticism because it can easily cause overreaction what Grant
nicely demonstrates (with all respect to his contribution to the
project).

...Well, there is one useful outcome of my posts: I see that the
community is alive and active :) Of course, Grant will be my favorite :)

Best regards,
Alexander


-----Original Message-----
From: ecos-discuss-owner@ecos.sourceware.org
[mailto:ecos-discuss-owner@ecos.sourceware.org] On Behalf Of Frank
Pagliughi
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 4:06 AM
Cc: ecos-discuss@sources.redhat.com
Subject: Re: [ECOS] Re: Is eCos project still alive?

As a embedded-systems consultant, I've been using eCos for several 
years, and I love it.  I've used it for my own development - test apps 
and demos - but I have never been able to sell a single customer on 
using the OS for a project.  When a potential customer (usually a 
manager type) has a look, those things do stand out: it *looks* old and 
out of date, on first pass. Most don't seem to get past poking around 
the web page.

For more technically sophisticated customers, when 2.0 first appeared, 
it literally took ten minutes to download the code, and get a sample app

running on an old PC. Now when I tell a customer to take it for a test 
drive, the setup gets involved, with pieces from several places.

I try to tell them to look closer, but by that time, they've already 
chosen something else. From my experience, the current state of the 
project doesn't seem to help sell it.

Frank

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