There’s a new choice for open source microkernels – QNX Neutrino.

QNX has announced a new hybrid licensing model to spur development with Neutrino.

For non-commercial development, Neutrino and its Momentics development tools are available free. For commercial development, kernel source is available free for development, while Momentics development seats are still for purchase, and royalties are still required for run-time deployments.

QNX is also opening its development process, similar to existing models in the open source community. Engineering teams will publish development plans, post builds and bug fixes, and provide moderated support to the development process. They will also collaborate with customers and the QNX community, using public forums, wikis, and source code repositories. Customers will have the choice to contribute changes back to the community, or to keep their changes private.

QNX has been leading the Eclipse CDT project, and their Momentics tools are recognized as world class. They’ve also got a leg up in multimedia support and multicore[] support.

This news might send more than a ripple through the commercial RTOS community. An interesting opening shot just before ESC[].