Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!uvaarpa!hudson!fits!dwells From: dwells@fits.acc.Virginia.EDU (Don Wells) Newsgroups: comp.realtime Subject: Re: Wind River's recent "per project" licensing policy Message-ID: <2481@hudson.acc.virginia.edu> Date: 16 Dec 89 05:46:59 GMT References: Sender: news@hudson.acc.virginia.edu Reply-To: dwells@fits.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells) Distribution: comp Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA Lines: 31 NRAO is a distributed organization, with facilities at seven locations in four states. We are currently using vxWorks for two different projects with development and debugging occurring at five of the seven sites. Three of the five are development labs and two are telescopes where RT applications are being deployed for the two separate projects. Programmers often travel back and forth between labs and telescopes when testing the applications. The original WRS development license was tied to sites, which seemed to imply a multiplier of five. That interpretation was unpleasant, of course. So NRAO asked WRS for a ruling that our development licensing should be on a per-project basis, i.e. with a multiplier of two. We accepted the implication that a new RT project, a separate telescope or major instrument system in our case, at an existing vxWorks site (indeed even if being done on one of the existing computers), would imply the necessity to pay for a new development license. Our business manager insists that we must take the terms of software licenses seriously (I agree with him); that is why NRAO negotiated these specific interpretations with WRS. The experience has taught me that it is hard to find a universal licensing rule that is fair and appropriate for all situations. Incidentally, we are pleased with vxWorks as an RT OS. Its superb communications capabilities are essential for our applications. Donald C. Wells, Associate Scientist | NSFnet: dwells@nrao.edu [192.33.115.2] National Radio Astronomy Observatory | SPAN: NRAO::DWELLS [6654::] Edgemont Road | BITnet: DWELLS@NRAO Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA | UUCP: ...!uunet!nrao.edu!dwells +1-804-296-0277 (38:02.2N/78:31.1W) | TWX=510-587-5482, Fax=+1-804-296-0278