ColdFire gains MMU -- expect 'real' Linux soon

"Freescale will unveil the first ColdFire processors ever to include a memory management unit (MMU), and therefore able to run full-scale Linux, this week at the Embedded Processor Forum in San Jose, Calif. Simultaneously, Freescale tools subsidiary Metrowerks announced that it plans to offer Linux development tools for the core, and will continue to offer -- and enhance -- its uClinux tools for MMU-less ColdFire cores."...

Jeremy Bowers - one of the Frontier old-timers - comments on Frontier Open Sourcing and asks himself...

"...as someone who might be interested in developing the product, what does an Open Source Frontier bring to the table?"...

Luckily for those of us that have wrestled with this same question Jeremy answers at length. My personal thanks too for saving me a load of brain cycles as I agreed with virtually all of his comments and so don't need to repeat them here.

Update: Actually Jeremy isn't old enough to to be known as an 'old-timer' but he's certainly been an active Frontier/Radio user/developer.

Today is an historic day as Dave Winer writes that it's As good a time as any to announce that...

"At some point in the next few months, there will be an open source release of the Frontier kernel. Not sure what license it'll use. There won't be any grand expectations of what kind of community will develop. Even if no bugs get fixed, if no features get added, if no new OSes are supported, it will be worth it, because its future will be assured. That's the point Ted makes, and that's my reasoning behind this.

We decided this quite some time ago, but waited for the right moment to start discussing it publicly. It seems now is the right time, or as good a time as any."

This is fantastic news. In fact on the train in to work this morning I was pondering the future of Frontier and UserTalk and my continued commitment to what has been a proprietary platform. Of course, lots of details need to be ironed and announced by UserLand so I'll be waiting with bated breath for these.

I'll also be very interested in reading what some of the Frontier old-timers have to say about this development. In the past the Frontier community was one of the brightest, most helpful and resourceful, and if the new community is anything like the old it's going to be a very exciting and interesting future.

Way to go UserLand!

If you're of the Spectrum, Vic, BBC micro, Dragon, etc., home computer using generation then you'll love the Hey Hey 16k - Anim by Rob Manuel - Song by MJ Hibbett flash animation. Even the Dragon gets a mention in the lyrics [even though it had a massive 32K of RAM rather than 16K as immortalised in the title ;-))].

Dave starts to answer some FAQs about Frontier open source release:

"All the source code you need to build the Frontier application on Windows and Macintosh, the core object database, Frontier.root, and the ancillary databases, but not manila.root or radio.root"

The news is getting better and better.

I'm often inspired by the bloggers that I consider to be friends even though we have never met face-to-face. One such blogger is Jim hbwt Roepcke and today I was deeply moved by his openness and honesty. As I began reading Finishing what I started I realised that my students would also find inspiration from Jim's story of courage and commitment and resolved to direct them to his posting. When I reached the final paragraph I was surprised, but particularly chuffed, to see that I merited a mention. I'd be very very proud if Jim has taken even the tiniest bit of encouragement from some of the things I've posted to my weblog over the years.

The UVic Department of Computer Science will be fortunate indeed to have such a keen and committed student and I know Jim will do well. I have no doubt that he will be the sort of student that is a pleasure to teach. I look forward to the regular updates on his progress and to hearing of his graduation in due course.

Very best wishes Jim.