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TRON + Linux = "T-Linux"
An anonymous reader writes "The T-Engine Forum and MontaVista Software announced today that they are collaborating to combine the long-dominant Japanese embedded operating system, TRON ("The Real-time Operating system Nucleus"), with embedded Linux, in the hopes of creating a standardized software architecture for embedded devices that takes advantage of open source software and the benefits of Linux."
not trolling, but a genuine question: advantage of open source I can understand - what benefit does linux bring to the embedded world, if they already have the core OS?
My life in the land of the rising sun.
I was really hoping this had something to do with lightcycles and recognizers.
Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. -FB
Personally, I think that if we have a 'tron' linux that somewhere they better make something named 'MCP'. Maybe root should be replaced with the loggin MCP.... heheheh...
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
Seriously, what is it with people completely bending the rules of acronyms just to make something sound cute/cool. "The Real-time Operating system Nucleus" should be called "TROSN"
I.O.U One Sig.
Japan - TRON Linux was announced and promptly sued into a smoking crater in the ground by Disney today. Disney representatives stated they were merely protecting their valuable intellectual property and that Linux is only used by thieves, anyways. MSFT rose 4 points.
Linux kernel renamed "Master Control Program".
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
I don't see that as necessary. The validity of the patent seems very much in question to many people. I can't think of anybody better to test the validity of the patent than a large association of Japanese real-time companies.
Mentor, the makers of the real time operating system "Nucleus" (tm), would appear to have reasonable grounds for confusion with a product in the same market place "The Real Time Operating system Nucleus Linux" aka TRON-Linux.
http://www.mentor.com/nucleus/
Sure you can argue Nucleus is a general term, but I doubt that argument holds much weight when both names are used in the same market. Heck, these two are even in the same tiny corner of the computer word (realtime operating systems).
Of course, IANAL, much less a trademark specialist. Anyone more educated on the topic care to comment?
-Matt
easy killer.
--
mcp:kaaos
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
In related news a flurry of lawsuits were recently filed:
The first was filed by Disney, because they OWN TRON.
The second was filed by SCO, because they OWN Unix, and this whole TRON thing might somehow cut into their profits.
The third was also filed by SCO. It was a billion dollar lawsuit against Disney. SCO also threatened to pull Disney's TRON license, which could prevent Disney from using bits, light cycles, or recognizers, or strange old men rotating in I/O towers at any future time.
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
Silly question, perhaps...the news last month from Japan explained that the manufs. there are simply looking to be MS free. And since they've recognized that their own efforts have failed, while Linux is growing, they've bitten the bullet and moved on.
Of course there are other reasons, but how much more of a reason should they need.
Besides, it's just a start. Once you have such a moidel in place, other open source OSs would be just as welcome. You just have to start as simply as possible. Right?
I was reading about TRON in Byte Magazine in the mid-1980's. This almost certainly pre-dates anything Mentor has done, much less registered.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
This reminds me of the time I won $5 from a guy because he didn't believe me that "TRON" was short for "TRace ON"- (and the TROFF , well duh)~
Was the same guy who didn't understand why I kept calling ! "bang" >:)
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
All that I see RTLinux doing is acting as a microkernel that can switch between OS personalities. It just so happens that they lost their way and created a whole real-time OS instead of setting it up as a personality over the microkernel.
The other way of looking at the RTLinux patent is that they've patented the idea of running a VM hosted OS under a real-time system. Again, that just doesn't make sense as an enforceable patent or you could start patenting any specific combination of host and guest systems.
Maybe there is something buried in the patent that I didn't understand, but to me it just seems like patenting a specific case of the obvious. Then again, I thought (and still think) that patents like Amazon's one-click were asinine and unenforceable, yet no one's managed to knock the stupid thing down yet.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
"Nucleus" has been around for a rather long time, usually used to indicate the center or core of something (analagous to the nucleus of a cell.)
Even more damning for any attempt by Mentor to enforce any copyright claims is the fact that terms like "nucleus" and "core" have been used in operating systems textbooks and papers since the seventies.
TRON also only uses the word as part of an acronym, not as part of a trademark.
The biggest issue would be (as others have pointed out) that TRON existed long before Mentor's Nucleus RTOS.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Noooo! Deutsche Telekom, take your hands off Linux!
For those who don't know them, about every product as a T prefixed: T-Mobile, T-Net, T-Systems, T-Online... and now T-LInux)
"TRON - fighting for the users."
Test post, please ignore.
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)