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Ask HN: How to obtain a QNX non-commercial license?

2 points by integricho ↗ HN
Recently I have taken interest in studying real-time operating systems. While reading about the topic, of the available commercial platforms, QNX seemed to be among the most widely adopted ones, thus I naturally went on and explored the possibilities how could someone with no previous connection to the QNX community get started with it, experiment and learn. To my surprise, the QNX website openly states that they do support and even encourage such activities, as described here: http://www.qnx.com/company/education/ and here: http://www.qnx.com/legal/licensing/non_commercial.html

As the only viable option shown there was to mail licensing@qnx.com and ask about non-commercial licenses, I did so, explained my situation and goals, but I was informed that they don't support such licenses anymore, only the 30day evaluation period is available. 30 days might be enough for someone that has prior experience with RTOSes, for the exact purpose to evaluate the platform whether it satisfies their needs or not, but it's just not enough for someone who wants to learn it.

I understand there are freely available RTOSes as well, such as FreeRTOS, but given the industry position of QNX, it seemed to me as the most interesting option, as many job advertisements put exactly experience with QNX as one of the bonus points.

My question is, did I do something wrong (or did I not do something that I was supposed to do) which resulted in me being rejected? Or, are those licenses really no longer available, and they just didn't update the website for a very long time?

5 comments

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brudgers
My random intenet advice:

Use the thirty day license. Then write back and ask for an extension as it draws to its end. Your situation is not uncommon and keeping contact every thirty days keeps you as an active lead in their sales funnel and makes it easier to keep tabs on licenses that are out in the wild. It also separates serious tire kickers and hobbyists from those who will lose interest in a six month license after two days. Basically, the company wants to know what someone is doing with their software when they grant more than thirty days of license.

The good news is that you already have contact with the company and so when you ask for a renewal/extension there's already a basis for granting it. That basis can be strengthened by writing back to the person who responded to your request to thank them and let them know that you downloaded the thirty day version. Then you can ask that person for an extension in a few weeks.

None of which is guaranteed to produce an extension, but at least you got thirty days worth of learning out of it.

Good luck.

integricho
Hm this sounds very reasonable, I guess it's worth giving it a shot, thanks for the tip!
gte525u
I understand your frustration. I actually had what they called a "hobbyist license" up until 6.5. Around that point QNX stopped granting new ones or upgrades to old ones.

I'm not sure why it's still on the website or what the criteria to get one now. Every time I've tried to contact licensing regarding the license type - I've gotten an abrupt brush off.

The evaluation license is the best bet. QNX has amazingly good docs and I think it just requires a support account.

integricho
Thanks for replying. I also don't understand why don't they just remove that section, they kinda played me that way, just like that.
gte525u
Micrium has a make hobbyist/maker license as well. I just got contacted by them after putting in a license request ~30 days ago.

Did you end up doing the 30-day eval of QNX?