I think it was prior to the RIM acquisition, then RIM (who is now BlackBerry) pulled that rug. It might even have been source available that time. It isn’t, so far, this time. (That might have been the second rug pull on that stack, if memory serves…)
TBH, I think I’d need FOSS to accept something free from BlackBerry. Dev tools and support were enough of a challenge in the BB9/BB10 days, even when working on behalf of a client who was paying them quite a lot, and their agreements were thorny enough, that I don’t think I’d trust the org without a license specifically outlining and protecting my rights.
And what they’re offering right now is pretty far from that. The license itself practically telegraphs another rug pull:
7.2 TERMINATION. This Agreement and licenses granted hereunder may be terminated by either Party upon written notice to the other Party.
Given the history and the very limited nature of the license, it’s hard to imagine spending a lot of effort developing expertise on this platform based on the very limited promise of free non-commercial use.
They do seem very dedicated to squeezing blood from this stone without doing anything that would make it actually attractive for people to use. “Embedded UI device” like car consoles or smart TV’s seem like they would be a good market… But afaict those already all run Linux. Their opportunity was 10-15 years ago, when embedded hardware strong enough to run Linux was still a little bit of a luxury and there weren’t already vendors who would make it work for you.
RIP QNX, maybe my kids will play with a public domain version of you someday.
“Embedded UI device” like car consoles or smart TV’s seem like they would be a good market… But afaict those already all run Linux.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate for sure. From what I can tell from a little bit of reverse engineering the factory stereo in my truck (2016 Toyota Tacoma) is running QNX. It’s not as flashy as the Carplay stereos in newer models but it is just absolutely rock solid. In the 3 or 4 years I’ve had the truck I don’t think I’ve ever had to fight with re-pairing my phone or any other weird issues that I routinely run into with rental vehicles. It just reliably does what I want it to do every day over and over.
Not quite all yet, especially for the more safety-critical parts like the instrument cluster QNX is still a thing. But yes, the trend has been strongly going that way, not helped by the fact that many car makers have shifted to the Android-based offerings. QNX is trying to keep a foothold by making hybrid setups easier: https://blackberry.qnx.com/en/products/foundation-software/qnx-hypervisor
It seems like they have been seeing the writing on the wall for quite some time, and are mostly trying to make sure to fully ride out the long tail of deployments and people sticking to existing investments.
Wasn’t it already a few years ago?
I think it was prior to the RIM acquisition, then RIM (who is now BlackBerry) pulled that rug. It might even have been source available that time. It isn’t, so far, this time. (That might have been the second rug pull on that stack, if memory serves…)
TBH, I think I’d need FOSS to accept something free from BlackBerry. Dev tools and support were enough of a challenge in the BB9/BB10 days, even when working on behalf of a client who was paying them quite a lot, and their agreements were thorny enough, that I don’t think I’d trust the org without a license specifically outlining and protecting my rights.
And what they’re offering right now is pretty far from that. The license itself practically telegraphs another rug pull:
Given the history and the very limited nature of the license, it’s hard to imagine spending a lot of effort developing expertise on this platform based on the very limited promise of free non-commercial use.
They do seem very dedicated to squeezing blood from this stone without doing anything that would make it actually attractive for people to use. “Embedded UI device” like car consoles or smart TV’s seem like they would be a good market… But afaict those already all run Linux. Their opportunity was 10-15 years ago, when embedded hardware strong enough to run Linux was still a little bit of a luxury and there weren’t already vendors who would make it work for you.
RIP QNX, maybe my kids will play with a public domain version of you someday.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate for sure. From what I can tell from a little bit of reverse engineering the factory stereo in my truck (2016 Toyota Tacoma) is running QNX. It’s not as flashy as the Carplay stereos in newer models but it is just absolutely rock solid. In the 3 or 4 years I’ve had the truck I don’t think I’ve ever had to fight with re-pairing my phone or any other weird issues that I routinely run into with rental vehicles. It just reliably does what I want it to do every day over and over.
Not quite all yet, especially for the more safety-critical parts like the instrument cluster QNX is still a thing. But yes, the trend has been strongly going that way, not helped by the fact that many car makers have shifted to the Android-based offerings. QNX is trying to keep a foothold by making hybrid setups easier: https://blackberry.qnx.com/en/products/foundation-software/qnx-hypervisor
It seems like they have been seeing the writing on the wall for quite some time, and are mostly trying to make sure to fully ride out the long tail of deployments and people sticking to existing investments.
a good summary of the open-closed-open-closed saga is on the orange site https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42079976
Then they rugpulled, then ‘open’ under some other form, then rugpull again. “fool me once” comes to mind.
Tangentially related, seL4 just celebrated its 2024 summit.
Recordings available at: https://sel4.systems/Foundation/Summit/2024/program