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On 03/23/11 05:46, Kfir Lavi wrote: |
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> I'm trying to migrate a big company to Gentoo. |
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> This company have a contract with Wind River for support and use. |
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> I don't have any experience with Wind River, so I would be happy to |
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> hear your experience with it, and what it's pros and cons. |
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> Regards, |
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> Kfir |
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All by yourself? That's a LARGE statement. |
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Wind River is the 600 lb Gorilla in the commercial |
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RTOS space. Everything from proprietary, to BSDish to embedded |
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Linux, state machines...... you name it they sell |
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(and mostly) support it. |
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Large companies use Wind River, because of many reasons, |
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but it is a "one stop shop" and Business managers |
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like that. Wind River can write (and often do) the |
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entire code for products or products lines, fast and |
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efficient. However, their "Achilles heal" is |
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they are EXPENSIVE to partner with; most often retaining |
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the intellectual property rights to all of the codes they |
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develop or sell. |
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Their business model is the "lock-in" and often, after years |
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of a relationship with a company, the victim (um, I mean customer) |
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finds out that WR is licensing the code to a competitor..... |
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Bad ju-ju, but legal and happens all the time. |
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So you are talking about helping a company take the "long road" to |
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freedom and profitability, via embedded Linux (Gentoo specifically). |
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Depending on the complexity of the of their codes, number of products, |
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etc, etc, you can easily be successful. However, be realistic. Pick |
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off the "low hanging fruit"; i.e. simple products to re-write the code |
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or new product offerings. WR will often get companies in a "tangled" |
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mess by the choices of processors, SOC, video chips etc etc where |
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NDAs and no published specifications make WR the only choice, or a |
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complete (hardware and software) redesign. |
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My advice: |
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Work smart, build a team (open source) that gradually assimilates |
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new products and the other easy "knock-off" and take your time. |
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Walking into a large company and pitching "kick WR out" is difficult |
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in many circumstances. Most of all, remember that in this company their |
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are managers that drink and eat and "sup" with WR and they have built |
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a career on a partnership with WR. They'll stab you in the back and |
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you'll never see it coming. |
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Also remember companies want to make a profit. So their management will |
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need "some sort of angle" as to what they have unique about their |
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product so other cannot just copy the code and sell it. When you |
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maintain proprietary source code, that is the lock for a company, |
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combined with patents. When you pitch open source solutions, you |
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and the company manager, must figure out a "unique" hook so as to |
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protect that company's investment and profit potential of the product |
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that is now open sources. YMMV. |
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Caveat Emptor! |
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But it is entirely doable depending on the "TEAM" you build as the |
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leader of this venture. |
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GOOD LUCK! |
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James |