

Microchip open source USB/TCPIP stack competition with $1100+ bounty - pingswept
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2011/09/12/microchip-open-source-usbtcpip-stack-competition-with-1100-bounty

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reemrevnivek
Previous discussion about these stacks and Microchip's licensed GCC compiler
on HN here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2972794> A quote from the
referenced article, also by the author of this post:

> "It’s their time-honored right to deal in closed source software – most
> companies do! With the chipKIT, however, Microchip wants to tap the Arduino
> buzz. They want promote products using the work of an open source community,
> but they’re not participating in the spirit of that community. It’s not
> illegal, it’s being a bad neighbor."

The previous post was much more negative, this one represents a complete
turnaround for DangerousPrototypes. See also
<http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/09/07/microchip-responds/>:

> "Bottom line, we can’t release our existing stacks because we have
> contractual obligations to many of our customers that prevent us from making
> them open source. \ So how about this: We offer a prize for anyone who
> writes these stacks for the community. To get started, the two that we want
> to target are the TCP/IP and USB stacks. Heck, who better to write these
> than the experts in the community…?"

~~~
pingswept
I think this whole episode is fascinating. I've been expecting larger
companies to make clumsy moves into open source hardware for a while now, and
it's finally happening.

I'm a little surprised that the Dangerous Prototypes fellow isn't more
skeptical of a $1000 prize for a TCP/IP stack. It's certainly far below market
rate for porting an open source stack to a new platform. I wonder whether it
will work-- will they actually get a functional stack out this gambit?

