Please help. We are considering migration of our own SCADA system (QNX 4.25) for QNX 6.5.0.
So - we need:
at least one development (self-hosted) system with Photon (c-compiler, editor, debugger, PhAB),
our targets will always be x86 (PC running QNX6 Runtime),
time enough for making the whole conversion (30-days is not enough).
We need no Embedded/Cellphone/Car Development/Runtime functionality, no IDE for other host platforms, no BSPs for other target platforms.
But we need support for today’s common PC HW (Ethernet, Graphics, CD/DVD reading/writing, USB-sticks, USB-keyboard, USB-mouse, playing sounds through sound-card, later maybe Internet, E-mail). This is a pain with QNX 4.25…
I found the “LicenseGuide v 2 14 June13-12.pdf” document on the QNX website, but it is terrible complicated to me - even for preparing good questions for our nearest QNX “dealer”.
Could you, please, give me first base orientation on QNX 6.5.0 Development/Runtime Licensing? I know of 30-day evaluation QNX 6.5.0 Momentics SDP.
Which functionality of 30-day Evaluation is limited - what things will remain working after these 30-days?
What does it mean:
perpetual license,
subscription license,
floating perpetual license,
floating subscription license,
are there some time-based (e.g. every year) fees that the licensed developer MUST pay (not optional - e.g. support) to have functional self-hosted non-IDE development?
Which exact items (components, parts) we need at least to buy for:
Development PC (QNX6)
Runtime PC with our SCADA application (QNX6, Photon microGUI, TCP/IP)?
Are there somewhere any guide prices (not exact, only to consider various variants of licensing) for one Development, one Runtime?
I’d like to know some facts (of experienced people) and only then ask local QNX “dealer” next questions.
I guess it’s a little ironic. I know a lot about QNX but very little about the licensing.
I know they sell development “seats”. You are supposed to have one for each system you are using for development. They are somewhat on the expensive side. Along with the “seat” you may want a support contract. That gives you access to support when something isn’t working or if you just don’t know (and we can’t help you).
Run time licenses are somewhat less expensive. The more components you use (eg. Photon) the higher the price. I can’t tell you what constitutes a component. I think these things have changed over time. The more licenses you buy (say per month or per year) the lower the price. I don’t think they publish any figures. As far as I can tell, it’s always worked out between you and QNX. The person to discuss this with is your QNX representative.
I think after 30 days, the development tools like cc stop, but the standard run time stuff like ls, find, pax, etc still work.
The definition of perpetual is forever. I suspect all runtime licenses are perpetual. You wouldn’t expect the user of an embedded system to have to pay a fee every year to keep it running. A subscription is something you pay for on a regular (annual?) basis. So a development license might be subscription. Of course I wouldn’t expect a development system to just stop working. What you probably get with a subscription is updates. So with a subscription, if you were running 6.5, you would get 6.6 for free.
That’s my best guess. You should contact your representative. If you don’t know who that is, post again. I’m sure Dennis can find that out for you.
Floating means a license for development seat can be assigned to more then one seat but only a one time. Ex: If you have 2 floating licenses, two people in the company can use the tool at any given time. But if one persone stop using it ( there is a time windows ) the any another one can grab the license.
Thank you guys, some terms are now clarified.
So floating perpetual Development license means that we can install Development (we think only of self-hosted without IDE) into several computers, but only one developer may work in one time (this person “grabs” Development license)?
A few pointers though. The next release of QNX should be around Q1 of 2013. It’s my feeling (and it’s just a feeling, i swear, if I really knew what the official world is I wouldn’t talk about it) that self-hosted will be dropped (any one from QSS reading this, feel free to correct me if i’m wrong). I mean they have announced Photon is going bye bye but they haven’t annonce any desktop like GUI based on their next graphics kit, so you do the math. Hence do you really want to set yourself self-hosted. I mean might as well bite the bullet now, unless you plan on sticking with 6.5.0SP1 for a very long time.
Thanks mario, it would be bad news for those people who use QNX for Industrial automation on desktop PCs (graphic HMI, SCADA in high resolutions) and have their own (configurable) systems developed for years…
I would advise against starting self-hosted development today. Since the release of 6.0 over 10 years ago, QNX has focused on cross development, just like their competitors (Wind River, Green Hills, etc.). Self-hosted development, or should I say, compiling, works. But all the great tools are missing. The IDE comes with some excellent tools that make cross development really efficient. System Profiler, Code Coverage, Target Information perspective, etc.
I loved self-hosted back then, but today… I would never go back to it. It’s not supported very well and I can’t live without the System Profiler. And as someone else pointed out, Self-hosted might disappear in the next release. I highly doubt this release will come in Q1 2013 though.