back to article QNX to power BlackBerry handsets too

RIM has plans for QNX to replace its existing handset operating system, though there will be one more version before the company adopts a single-OS strategy. RIM bought QNX last April and is using the OS on its PlayBook tablet, but has now confirmed that it will be using the diminutive OS in its phones too, with one new …

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  1. Nathan 6

    Java VM should be central.

    I agree with the point that without a JVM to code to this new operating system will be dead in the water. One only as to look at the Lack of success of HTML/Javascript/CSS apps on apples products and of course the dismal app count of other phones OS which doesn't have a Java VM.

  2. Conrad Longmore
    FAIL

    Let's hope..

    Let's hope that it goes better than Nokia's plans to move to Maemo.. or MeeGo.. or whatever. They haven't exactly made much progress in moving their high-end devices off Symbian.

    1. Neil 7
      FAIL

      @Let's hope..

      Clearly Conrad you don't understand the Nokia software strategy which is to keep both Symbian and MeeGo as each OS targets very different markets, and there will be Qt on top of both. It's a great strategy, as Symbian and MeeGo both have very different strengths.

      Qt is a cross platform run-time that is being received very enthusiastically by developers and it will allow those developers to code for Symbian and MeeGo at the same time, and to not care about what OS their apps are deployed to.

      RIM don't have the luxury of Qt and the future for them will be messy as they try to transition developers from BB OS to QNX. If there is no compatibility between QNX and BBOS 6 and with the stated aim to ditch BBOS after v7 I can't see why developers will continue to invest more time developing for BB OS, whatever version.

  3. JaitcH
    Unhappy

    Sounds like a revrse takeover!

    RIM buys QNX; QNX squeezes out the RIM OS.

    Let's hope it is as secure and as reliable. as the RIM. As well, even if the US requires backdoors, other countries will get 100% secure transmissions.

    1. John 62
      Jobs Halo

      A bit like...

      ...NeXT taking over Apple. Went quite well for them. Though Apple could concentrate on the desktop for several years while a bit of iPhone/iPad skunkworks went on in the background until it hit primetime. QNX has an huge customer base of varying industries. Will RIM be able to keep them happy while keeping enough the focus on the BlackBerry/PlayBook?

  4. Steen Hive
    Thumb Up

    QNX

    Is the wasp's buttocks as far as I am concerned.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    QNXRTP 6.0 developers release

    for instance heres some 2003 ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/qnx/qnxnc621.iso

    the 6.20 2002 and QNXRTP , i think the original 6.0 developers release is in that directory too

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't wait...

    Currently it takes over 10 minutes for a cold boot of my 8900 curve - completely unacceptable.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    back in the day ,QNX6.1 RTOS, support for cross-platform development,

    bills aid"Your correspondent evaluated QNX for a set-top box about 12 years ago, but found the lack of Java support intolerable (we ended up using VxWorks). So it's strange to hear that Java support remains problematic"

    well theres your problem bill...

    you clearly didn't know/remember about the amiga initiative where they Nearly took QNX RTP6 back in 2001, and there is still a free Full Dan CEO of qnx officially released RTP6.1 ISO around if you look, very nice it is too, it played generic quake smoother than anything Else at the time ;), yes they ported the engine to RTP6 for fun so you could use the game files .

    there was, and so still is a full jvm for RTP J9 from IBM

    http://www.openqnx.com/index.php?name=faq&id_cat=4"

    "Is there a java jvm for QNX? Where can I download it?

    Yes, there is a J9 from IBM for QNX.

    j9 is a part of the WebSphere Device Developer (WSDD) software and not a standalone product. You can purchase online or download the WSDD at

    http://www-3.ibm.com/software/wireless/wsdd/ (quite huge) and to copy

    the j9 bins and libs onto your QNX box. They are in the WSDD Software Updates tarball.

    To make your life easier, Chris McKillop made the j9 binaries as a zip file at http://www.qnxzone.com/~cdm/eclipse/j9.zip though it's a bit older than the WSDD version."

    QNX is one of the very few certified POSIX OSes so "porting any *nix application should not take more than a recompile" including any other jvm you might like should be simple for a seasoned dev, and the fact that free live cd CD was your development plaform.

    found with a very quick search so you can use that or compile some linux version to qnx RTP and use that if you like i guess.

    you could even run Amithlon on RTP back in the day http://www.osnews.com/story/414/Review_of_AmigaOSXL_and_Amithlon

    http://www.osnews.com/story/21/QNX_RtP_6_1_0_Released

    " QNX RtP 6.1.0 Released

    posted by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Mon 13th Aug 2001 07:18 UTC

    A new version of the QNX RtP, the Real Time desktop OS from QSSL is ready to download.

    Released June 29, the QNX RTP now features version 6.1.0 of the QNX RTOS, support for cross-platform development, Dinkum C and C++ libraries, driver development kits, extended driver support, and a host of new Photon applications.

    The bare bones download weights 24 MB for the Win9x, FAT32-based version while the ISO image that can be installed in its own partition, is more than 440 MB. Head over to QNXStart for more QNX-related news and software."

  8. Zan
    WTF?

    10,000 applications?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/wtf_32.png

    I'm continually befuddled by mentions of Blackberry apps and its app store. Obviously no journalist who mentions it has ever visited the store or asked any Blackberry user if they ever use apps. Horrid doesn't begin to describe it and that it's mentioned with 'straight face' as competition for Apple defies belief. Google and Facebook apps are the only ones I've seen people using.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    RTP Qt

    @neil7

    "RIM don't have the luxury of Qt"

    errr, RIM now own QNX RTP and ,QT for RTP and many other code bases both closed and open, has been around for a long time now (if Dan QNX CEO, payed the fee for the licence back in the day,then it most likely is also valid for RIM use today too) and it was a generic part of the supplied liveCD above, as well as available for that really old qnx4 that bill looked at...

    for instance http://sourceforge.net/projects/openqnx/files/

    loads of app source including

    Qt3 for QNX6 39.4 MB 2003-09-11 2,855

    people should really start using google and a few key words before stating this or that X does not exist for platform/OS Y.

    http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6-snapshot/platform-notes-qnx.html

    1. Neil 7
      Thumb Up

      @RTP Qt

      I'm well aware that Qt is available for QNX, but what point is that when Qt isn't available for BB OS? Without Qt being available on both platforms, the benefit of a cross platform run-time is entirely lost.

      RIM need to get their developers off of BB OS as soon as possible, either by providing a short-lived cross-platform run-time (Qt would be ideal, but not in keeping with the proprietary nature of RIM and since the objective is to get to a single OS somewhat pointless) or by providing a compatibility layer or even BB OS emulator on QNX (similar to what Palm Software proposed many years ago when trying to ditch their old OS which they had already flogged off to Access for something newer - was it called Cobalt or something, was it even released in the end?)

      By announcing that BB OS is going to die soon, any self respecting RIM developer would now be considering QNX only which should leave BB OS a little bereft when it comes to new applications. Can't help thinking that RIM may have been a bit premature with this announcement, unless they have something else up their sleeve.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    photon

    @Zan

    its not hard, the hardest part is finding the right app code-base to make your non profit app from and RTP back in the day did a fine job If you can code, and the current RIM RTP is still the same RTP6 codebase so it should be reasonable to take the above and code/port something werthwhile , are RIM still using photon as their base GUI BTW bill?

    i ask as back in 2001, Dan said to me that we/anyone could replace that with any Amiga GUI we liked if we just write the GUI code and used the supplied hooks in the the RTP to insert it, a few hours work i seem to remember he said.

    http://mobile.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=77

    "

    Daryl was just a summer qnx intern back in the day but had good inventive idea's, wonder what your doing now Daryl if you read this.....?

    ....

    (#527) Why wait?

    By Daryl Low on 2001-09-03 02:25:52

    No need to wait for QNX to release the iPAQ stuff or for us to write all the apps. The entire demo was written and tested (in a few weeks) on stock x86 machines running RTP. The basic formula was:

    1) Grab a screen shot and draw a UI (with your favourite BMP editor)

    2) Implement the UI (using PhAB)

    3) Code the backend

    4) Glue them together

    There really wasn't any secret mojo involved here. Most of the "Memory" app was done in about 8 hours (most of which was staring at the code for "pidin" from cvs.qnx.com). A basic ToDo app shouldn't be much harder, same for an Address Book app, with a Day Planner app just a notch trickier. Come on people! Download a copy of RTP and get going! "

    people might also remember the iPac port LOL

    http://www.vitanuova.com/screenshots/charon_ipaq.jpg

    http://eqip.openqnx.com/ipaq_bsp/embed_intro.html

    so todays phones are massive and far more powerful compared to that device, it ran really nicely too.

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