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Re: Is Support worth it?


>   I'm just getting ready to start using ecos. I got a quote on support
> options, it was much higher then I anticipated. Especially considering how
> they limit what they will do. Has anyone else signed up for support? Did
you
> feel it was worth it? How was the response time? Knowledge of the support
> people? Thanks in advance.

From a previous posting on ecos-discuss:

:P

----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Lunn <lunn@ma.tech.ascom.ch>
To: Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com>
Cc: <ecos-discuss@sourceware.cygnus.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOS] how many eCOS users?


> > I'm trying to generate enough of a warm fuzzy feeling about eCOS in
> > upper management to get them to go along with my recommendation to use
> > it in a new product line.
>
> I had to do this a few months ago. I managed it and so far im very
> pleased with eCos.
>
> > So far, the big advantage of eCOS is that we can give customers a
> > pre-configured eCOS setup (including device drivers for our proprietary
> > hardware) and a complete set of development tools if they want to
> > develop their own applications.  The Linux synthetic target is also a
> > plus, though other vendors have similar things for their products that
> > run under MS-Windows.
>
> To me other big selling points were source code for everything. I also
> looked at VRTX. I kept asking about access to source code and reading
> between the lines the answer was always, yes you can have the source
> code, but no we don't want you to have it.
>
> I've found sources for the tools and eCos realy usefull. I had a very
> strange problem with LD inserting extra 0x00 into the object code. It
> was not reproducable by anyone else. It was not until i stepped
> thought the code with a debugger and found the fwrite() statement that
> it became clear it was a bug in Solaris's NFS server!
>
> Another big thing is Cygnus's support. The support of eCos is realy
> good if you have a support contract. This is something i am realy
> pleased with. Fast and accurate responces, typically withing a
> day. They have made minor modifications to eCos to help me, they are
> happy to answer questions about how the internals work etc, they realy
> know how the hardware works. You talk to the engineers who actually
> wrote the code.
>
> The uptake of the sourceware version seems to of been slow to start
> with. Its now starting to take off. If you read the email on this list
> you see more and more ports going on to other hardware. Also people
> are starting to work on other, non platform dependant things like
> TCP/IP stacks. This open source development of eCos could very well be
> the key to its success. Cygnus has limited resources for porting to
> new hardware and providing new facilities. As Linux has shown, the
> amount of resource on the Net is hugh and some realy amazing things
> can be done.
>
> > One of the questions I know they're going to ask is how many people
> > are using eCOS in products?
>
> ASCOM will be for the PowerLine products.
>
>         Andrew Lunn
>
> ____________________________
>
> Andrew Lunn
> Research Engineer
> Phone +41 62 889 52 97
> Fax +41 62 889 52 90
> Andrew.Lunn@ascom.ch
>
> Ascom Systec Ltd.
> Applicable Research & Technology
> Gewerbepark
> CH-5506 Maegenwil
> Switzerland
>
> www.ascom.com/art
>
>
>
>


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