| Microsoft eases "shared source" restrictions |
Jun. 28, 2004
In an effort to help device makers differentiate their products and innovate, Microsoft is eliminating many restrictions on the use of the "shared source" license for its Windows CE operating system. The change, which accompanies the impending full release of Windows CE 5.0, will counter competition from Linux and is likely to expand Microsoft's slice of the roughly $1B embedded OS market pie.
The revised Windows CE Shared Source license will increase the amount of source code that Microsoft is generally making available by roughly 25 percent, to more than 2.5 million lines of code which includes the operating system kernel, graphical user interfaces, and more, Microsoft says. While the company is reluctant to specify just how much of the total Windows CE code this represents, product manager John Starkweather characterizes it as "a majority" of the OS.
Significantly, Microsoft says the new version of the Windows CE Shared Source license eliminates many of the constraints that kept most companies from using modified OS code in their products, "enabling, for the first time, all licensees to ship products commercially built from their modifications of the Windows CE 5.0 shared source code." Additionally, beginning with the new Shared Source license version, Windows CE 5.0 licensees will maintain ownership of their derivative code, "and will not be obligated to share modifications with Microsoft, partners, or competitors."
This isn't the first time Microsoft has permitted device makers to ship customized versions of Windows CE in commercial products. Last year, the company introduced a "Premium" Shared Source license which, for the first time, granted "selected" silicon vendors and system integrators rights to redistribute modified code (derivative works) within commercial products. However, there were two significant catches.
First, the original Premium Shared Source license required that modifications made to the OS be submitted and sublicensed back to Microsoft -- without royalty -- thus automatically granting Microsoft the right to fold customer-developed enhancements back into the mainstream OS, or to provide them in some other manner to additional Windows CE customers. Consequently, companies modifying Windows CE in order to differentiate their products could soon see the fruits of their labors showing up in their competitors' wares.
Also, Premium Shared Source -- and thus the option to ship modified versions of Windows CE within commercial products -- was limited to customers and partners meeting a set of relatively restrictive criterea. According to Microsoft product manager Jeana Jorgensen, to be eligible for the Premium shared source program, silicon vendors and system integrators had to be gold-level members of Microsoft's Windows Embedded Partner program, and OEM customers had to have purchased at least 50,000 copies of Windows CE during the previous 12 months. As a result, the ability to ship customized versions of Windows CE within commercial products was effectively restricted to a few hundred companies -- and none could be within several of the world's most important geographic markets, including China, India, Russia, and South America.
In contrast, the revised Shared Source license that will be introduced along with the full release version of Windows CE 5.0 makes two major changes: - It permits anyone, anywhere who downloads the code (and accepts the terms of the license) to create and use derivative works commercially. This vastly expands the number of instances in which modified versions of Windows CE can be used commercially, since the ability to do so is no longer contingent on company status, quantity of software previously licensed, or geographic region.
- It eliminates the requirement to submit and sublicense modifications back to Microsoft. This makes it possible for companies to make proprietary changes to the OS, which they are not required to give back to Microsoft -- thus allowing them to preserve a competitive edge by retaining their Windows CE modifications as their own intellectual property.
In some sense, the revised Shared Source terms are reminiscent of the BSD open source license, which permits the development of proprietary derivatives that need not be shared with the community, in contrast to the GPL, which obligates developers to make their modifications available to the public.
Commenting on the changes to the Windows CE Shared Source License, Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices Division, said, "Our new commercial derivatives licensing is all about providing device makers with even greater flexibility to innovate for the vast range of embedded device scenarios where the Windows CE software platform can be leveraged. We believe that the ability to ship commercial derivatives, with no obligation to share customizations, will greatly appeal to device makers -- all of whom want to maintain the rights to their competitive advantage."
 Starkweather says that one example of the use of derivative works is Hitachi, which has already shipped a custom version of Windows CE in a product targeting the Southeast Asian market that looks like a PDA, but has a "very unique" user interface with large icons (click photo for larger view). "It was much different, a different approach for the specific customers that they were targeting," according to Starkweather.
Despite the reduced restrictions of the new version of the standard Windows CE 5.0 Shared Source license, the Premium Shared Source licensing program still offers an important benefit to companies that can qualify for it, since it provides access to a larger amount of Windows CE source code than the regular program does. How much more? "A lot more," Starkweather says. Also, starting with Windows CE 5.0, Microsoft is substantially reducing the previous 12 months purchase quantity requirement from 50,000 licenses, to just 5,000.
Develop now, pay later
In an effort to further tip the balance in favor of Windows CE, Microsoft does not require device makers to pay any run-time fees at all, until their products are actually shipping to customers. Furthermore, the software development process itself is accomplished with an inexpensive, $995 integrated toolkit which can even be downloaded on a 120-day free-trial basis as part of the Windows CE 5.0 "evaluation edition" before purchasing a license.
Additionally, Microsoft last year instituted an aggressively priced $3 "Windows CE Core" license for OEMs wanting to use a subset of Windows CE functionality in highly cost-sensitive devices, further reducing overall OS expenses for applications that don't need all of Windows CE's capabilities. And if the Core version doesn't provide everything needed, the full OS license ("Windows CE Pro") is available starting at just $15.
"The total cost of development for an embedded software platform is a critical decision factor for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)," noted Brian Crowley, CEO of Bsquare Corp., a Gold-level member of Microsoft's Windows Embedded Partner program. "We continue to see growing demand for Windows CE because OEMs are able to get to market quickly with relatively small development teams and can defer royalty costs until they are realizing revenue from the successful devices we�ve helped them differentiate."
 "We chose Windows CE to power our Wurlitzer Digital Jukebox products [photo at left, details here] because it offers a suite of powerful multimedia components and a business model that keeps our development costs low," commented Phil Usatine, Chief Architect and VP of Technology Development, Gibson Audio. "We've also seen incredible value in the Windows CE core license as it enables us to use advanced technologies like Windows Media codecs and digital rights management to provide our customers with an amazing music entertainment experience."
250,000 Shared Source developers, and counting
Microsoft says that more than 250,000 embedded developers have thus far downloaded Windows CE Shared Source code. Further details on the Windows CE Shared Source Program are available here, and general information about Microsoft's Shared Source initiative is here.
The new version of the Shared Source License, called a "EULA" (End User License Agreement), will be available later this week on Microsoft's embedded website. The final version of Windows CE 5.0 will be available for download once it has been released for manufacturing, which is expected to take place on July 9th.
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