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FreeRTOS FAQ - Amazon

This is a subsection of the full FAQ

Why have Amazon taken stewardship of FreeRTOS?
What is "Amazon FreeRTOS", and how does it differ from "FreeRTOS"?
Do I have to be an Amazon Web Services (AWS) customer to use FreeRTOS?
Can I use FreeRTOS to connect to any cloud service?
Are Amazon also investing in the FreeRTOS kernel as a standalone component?
Have Amazon forked FreeRTOS?
What about the FreeRTOS.org website?

This is a subsection of the full FAQ

Amazon Web Services provide more than 100 cloud hosted services that are used by millions of customers, and in all industry sectors. A growing number of AWS services are designed for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, that is, the connection and management of internet connected devices.

Device manufacturers connect their MCU based devices to the cloud to innovate both their products and their business models. However, it takes time to build the security and connectivity components necessary for this connectivity into the device's software before that innovation can start. A significant proportion of connected MCU devices already run the FreeRTOS kernel, so Amazon chose to provide the FreeRTOS project with the resources necessary to extend their offering into fully integrated security and connectivity libraries, and ensure those libraries can be developed and supported long into the future. That enables FreeRTOS developers to spend less time on library integration, and more time on innovation.

To ensure longevity, Amazon also ensures the wider FreeRTOS ecosystem is strong, so all FreeRTOS kernel users benefit, not just those who connect their devices to the internet. We will continue to add features and support for new architectures going forward. As always, we appreciate user feedback.

Also see the FAQs "Do I have to be an AWS customer to use FreeRTOS" and "Can I use FreeRTOS to connect to any cloud service".

Historically "FreeRTOS" has been used as shorthand for the "FreeRTOS kernel". The FreeRTOS kernel has always provided, and still provides, a real time scheduler and set of inter-task communication primitives.

Amazon FreeRTOS provides free and open source security and connectivity libraries that are designed to work with, are tested with, and are supplied fully integrated with, the exact same FreeRTOS kernel that is available from the FreeRTOS.org website. Therefore, Amazon FreeRTOS does not change the FreeRTOS kernel, but extends the FreeRTOS offering with addional capabilities. Also see the FAQ Have Amazon forked FreeRTOS?.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) also provide an online management console, and connected device management services.

No, you do not need to be an AWS customer to use any of the Amazon FreeRTOS libraries.

The FreeRTOS kernel, and other Amazon FreeRTOS libraries, are provided under the terms of the free and open source MIT license. That means they can be used for any purpose, without restriction.

Yes. Also see the FAQ "Do I have to be an AWS customer to use FreeRTOS?".

Yes. The first version of the FreeRTOS kernel released under the stewardship of Amazon Web Services (AWS) was FreeRTOS V10.0.0, which contained new features, and simpler licensing.

No. Amazon continue to invest in the development of the FreeRTOS kernel, and the FreeRTOS kernel provided with Amazon FreeRTOS is the same as that provided from the FreeRTOS.org site. Also see the FAQ What is 'Amazon FreeRTOS', and how does it differ from 'FreeRTOS'?".

The FreeRTOS.org site may be refreshed from time to time, but other than that, there is no intention to stop documenting and distributing the FreeRTOS kernel from this site.