While there have been quite a few comments that QNX has too little to offer

and possible late in its entry, I feel that it has a solid potential for not

only becoming embedded application developers favourite platform but also

encouraging normal application developers to develop for embedded devices! If

you are already developing under Linux, the extra little porting effort will

increase you target and audience.

While the comparison it Linux is inevitable, it has to be said that QNX is

only being given away for free. This does not mean that you get to tinker with

the actual operating system, i.e. work with the kernel source code! QNX

promises developers that this is not necessary but some hardcore developers

will definitely feel the dent.

For the desktop users, QNX can provide the momentum to jump towards the Unix

platform, even promoting Linux. It is also one of the few operating systems

that require little tinkering to run. The 1.44MB demo disk can come handy if

you need to quickly surf the net on a system void of a hard disk!

The QNX RTP is absolutely worth the download/ordering if you intend to develop

embedded applications. Don't download it if you only want to play Quake 3 :-)