TRON Enters Alliance With Microsoft

David writes "As widely reported on OSNews.com, Forbes, IDG, CNet, AustralianIT, and Ashi Shimbun - Microsoft Corp. has entered into an alliance with the T-engine Forum, the consortium behind the free software TRON operating system. As TRON runs billions of devices worldwide, this will help Microsoft's goal of cementing WinCE / .NET in places as diverse as your toaster and cell phone, perhaps in a setup similar to how X-Windows is in relation to the Linux kernel." (Continued below.)

David continues: "This arrangement is ironic, as Microsoft is part of the reason why the U.S. in the 1980s prevented Japan from putting TRON into schools on the desktop by account of trade rules, which would've meant Linux may've never gone beyond being a footnote in the comp.os.minix archives. No doubt Microsoft is aiming to keep Linux out of the embedded space, and may in the long-term foster an environment where using anything other than industry-licenced OS software on the desktop becomes unviable for everyday tasks because all the infratructurial systems we take for granted today like radio, television, phones, IM, require Palladium-style walled gardens."

Comments

No, they'll play fair enough.

[JayBlalock]

Actually, I have no doubt that Microsoft will play relatively fair with these guys. If they're a non-profit org, that means they could pretty much pick up their toys and leave anytime they want. (in realistic terms; I obviously don't know what kind of contract was signed) The idea appears to solely be to let Microsoft take over what has always been a pretty serious competitor in Asia in the handheld markets. I have little doubt that whatever comes of this will be named "Microsoft Tron" or "Powered by Microsoft TN Technologies" or something like.

It's just more assimilation. (and just think, they were probably prepping this deal at the same time they were whining about the China-Japan-Korea superOS being unfair)

This one is very obvious

[Neo-Rio-101]

My first reaction to this is that here is Microsoft trying to stem the tide against the proposed OS that China, Japan, and Korea are thinking about.

In Japan, Microsoft has a fair bit of prestige... unlike, say, in Europe or the US where MS's reputation is sullied by the anti-trust suits. The Japanese, IMO, don't really think that the general public minds MS dominance... but then the Japanese wouldn't say openly that they hate MS or anything. Plus most IT workers would be thrilled to work for MS Japan... they have lots of cash after all. There seems to be no debate here about "which OS is better" like there is in other western countries.

Re:such a shame

[AstroDrabb]

I hate MS as much as the next guy. However, this looks like it will STILL be TRON and it will STILL be a free RTOS. They are just going to allow MS and their .Not crap to run on it. I guess this is how MS wants to try to get a monopoly on the embeded world.

Tron is open source??

[molo]

I said it before and I'll say it again: where can I find the source and the license to tron? It seems that tron is more of an open specification of a RTOS, and there are a ton of closed binary-only implementations.

This actually kinda reminds me of the MIPS processor architechure.. there is an open specification and lots of people produce chips for the ISA.. but it wasn't until opencores came along that there was an open implementation.. and there is no open implementation for TRON yet, AFAIK.

Is tron open-source? Where is the code? Where is the license? Whats the story here? If it really is open-source, why can't someone point to the code? Something is fishy here.. or perhaps its just lost in the translation.. but I can't figure this out.

-molo