WDF beta license

NTDEV
1

I got the WDF May pre-release from WinHec and I am wondering whether its license
allows us to start really using it today ? In particular, could we ship a
beta-WDF driver to our customers or must we wait for the official release?
Reading through the license leads me to believe that it is the latter:

(a) Microsoft grants to Recipient a limited, non-exclusive, nontransferable,
royalty-free license to install and use one copy of the executable code of the
Software on a single computer residing on Recipient’s premises, solely for
purposes of testing software programs that run in conjunction with the Software,
and to evaluate the Software for the purpose of providing feedback thereon to
Microsoft. Due to the nature of the development work, Microsoft provides no
assurance that any specific errors or discrepancies in the Software will be
corrected.
(b) All other rights are reserved to Microsoft. Recipient shall not rent,
lease, sell, sublicense, assign, or otherwise transfer any portion of the
Software. Recipient may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any
portion of the Software, except and only to the extent that this limitation is
expressly prohibited by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.

If that is the case, there is no much sense in writing “real” WDF drivers at
this time. All we can do is play around with WDF - all new designs will still
have to be WDF. That is unfortunate!

regards,
Tzvetan

2

> If that is the case, there is no much sense in writing “real” WDF drivers at

this time. All we can do is play around with WDF - all new designs will still
have to be WDF. That is unfortunate!

Ahem … I mean all new designs would have to be WDM

3

I won’t try to answer the license question, but you should remember the WDF
API’s are still in flux. I personally would not assume what I write today
will work on WDF when it ships. My own bet is the API’s will not be frozen
till 2005.

–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
Remove StopSpam from the email to reply

“Tzvetan Mikov” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I got the WDF May pre-release from WinHec and I am wondering whether its
license
> allows us to start really using it today ? In particular, could we ship a
> beta-WDF driver to our customers or must we wait for the official release?
> Reading through the license leads me to believe that it is the latter:
>
> (a) Microsoft grants to Recipient a limited, non-exclusive,
nontransferable,
> royalty-free license to install and use one copy of the executable code of
the
> Software on a single computer residing on Recipient’s premises, solely for
> purposes of testing software programs that run in conjunction with the
Software,
> and to evaluate the Software for the purpose of providing feedback thereon
to
> Microsoft. Due to the nature of the development work, Microsoft provides
no
> assurance that any specific errors or discrepancies in the Software will
be
> corrected.
> (b) All other rights are reserved to Microsoft. Recipient shall not
rent,
> lease, sell, sublicense, assign, or otherwise transfer any portion of the
> Software. Recipient may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble
any
> portion of the Software, except and only to the extent that this
limitation is
> expressly prohibited by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.
>
> If that is the case, there is no much sense in writing “real” WDF drivers
at
> this time. All we can do is play around with WDF - all new designs will
still
> have to be WDF. That is unfortunate!
>
> regards,
> Tzvetan
>
>
>

4

“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I won’t try to answer the license question, but you should remember the WDF
> API’s are still in flux. I personally would not assume what I write today
> will work on WDF when it ships. My own bet is the API’s will not be frozen
> till 2005.

But does that really matter ? DDK versions are not 100% backward compatible
either. If your driver works well today with this version of WDF (lets say it
passes WHQL), you might want to use it, and since you can link WDF statically,
it will continue to work in the future.

I am about to start a new driver design and it seems that I must use WDM or the
release of the driver would have to depend on the release of WDF, which as you
say may be in 2005.

regards,
Tzvetan

5

WDF is in a beta stage at this moment. That means that there are things
that are not yet implemented or still need to be rounded out. You
should *NOT* ship a driver using WDF at this time. We (the WDF team)
would really like for you to experiment with WDF though. That is the
only way you can give us feedback so we can make it better and fix any
bugs that you find.

d

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Tzvetan Mikov
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:03 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] WDF beta license

“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I won’t try to answer the license question, but you should remember
the WDF
> API’s are still in flux. I personally would not assume what I write
today
> will work on WDF when it ships. My own bet is the API’s will not be
frozen
> till 2005.

But does that really matter ? DDK versions are not 100% backward
compatible
either. If your driver works well today with this version of WDF (lets
say it
passes WHQL), you might want to use it, and since you can link WDF
statically,
it will continue to work in the future.

I am about to start a new driver design and it seems that I must use WDM
or the
release of the driver would have to depend on the release of WDF, which
as you
say may be in 2005.

regards,
Tzvetan

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@windows.microsoft.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

6

I have to second this. While we understand that this is beta, the time you
spend on learning WDF will be worthwhile for both you and Microsoft. We are
pretty close. We are not going to add any new features. We really want to
get your feedback to make sure that our DDIs cover all scenarios. This is a
chicken and egg problem. If we ship DDIs too soon then we run the risk of
shipping DDIs that don’t work for all cases. But there is also an
understandable reluctance in the driver community to spend time on WDF
before it ships and hence we don’t get the feedback. Internally at Microsoft
we are struggling to find the right balance. This is why we have come up
with a beta program. The more experimentation you do with WDF and give us
feedback, the faster we can incorporate them into our release and ship it
sooner. We are also working on some incentives for those who give us good
constructive feedback. In fact you can join the beta program and even
suggest what kind of incentives you would like.

–
Nar Ganapathy
Windows Driver Foundation group
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

“Doron Holan” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
WDF is in a beta stage at this moment. That means that there are things
that are not yet implemented or still need to be rounded out. You
should NOT ship a driver using WDF at this time. We (the WDF team)
would really like for you to experiment with WDF though. That is the
only way you can give us feedback so we can make it better and fix any
bugs that you find.

d

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Tzvetan Mikov
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:03 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] WDF beta license

“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I won’t try to answer the license question, but you should remember
the WDF
> API’s are still in flux. I personally would not assume what I write
today
> will work on WDF when it ships. My own bet is the API’s will not be
frozen
> till 2005.

But does that really matter ? DDK versions are not 100% backward
compatible
either. If your driver works well today with this version of WDF (lets
say it
passes WHQL), you might want to use it, and since you can link WDF
statically,
it will continue to work in the future.

I am about to start a new driver design and it seems that I must use WDM
or the
release of the driver would have to depend on the release of WDF, which
as you
say may be in 2005.

regards,
Tzvetan

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@windows.microsoft.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

7

And how does one join the beta program?

-Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Nar Ganapathy[MS] [mailto:xxxxx@windows.microsoft.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 12:48 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] WDF beta license

I have to second this. While we understand that this is beta, the time you
spend on learning WDF will be worthwhile for both you and Microsoft. We are
pretty close. We are not going to add any new features. We really want to
get your feedback to make sure that our DDIs cover all scenarios. This is a
chicken and egg problem. If we ship DDIs too soon then we run the risk of
shipping DDIs that don’t work for all cases. But there is also an
understandable reluctance in the driver community to spend time on WDF
before it ships and hence we don’t get the feedback. Internally at Microsoft

we are struggling to find the right balance. This is why we have come up
with a beta program. The more experimentation you do with WDF and give us
feedback, the faster we can incorporate them into our release and ship it
sooner. We are also working on some incentives for those who give us good
constructive feedback. In fact you can join the beta program and even
suggest what kind of incentives you would like.

–
Nar Ganapathy
Windows Driver Foundation group
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

“Doron Holan” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
WDF is in a beta stage at this moment. That means that there are things
that are not yet implemented or still need to be rounded out. You should
NOT ship a driver using WDF at this time. We (the WDF team) would really
like for you to experiment with WDF though. That is the only way you can
give us feedback so we can make it better and fix any bugs that you find.

d

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Tzvetan Mikov
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:03 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] WDF beta license

“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I won’t try to answer the license question, but you should remember
the WDF
> API’s are still in flux. I personally would not assume what I write
today
> will work on WDF when it ships. My own bet is the API’s will not be
frozen
> till 2005.

But does that really matter ? DDK versions are not 100% backward compatible
either. If your driver works well today with this version of WDF (lets say
it passes WHQL), you might want to use it, and since you can link WDF
statically, it will continue to work in the future.

I am about to start a new driver design and it seems that I must use WDM or
the release of the driver would have to depend on the release of WDF, which
as you say may be in 2005.

regards,
Tzvetan

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@windows.microsoft.com To
unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

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unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com


This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
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8

This is on the OSRONLINE website…

http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=293

Regards,

Tony Mason

Consulting Partner

OSR Open Systems Resources Inc.

http://www.osr.com http:</http:>

From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Curless, Jeffrey
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 2:12 PM
To: ntdev redirect
Subject: RE: [ntdev] WDF beta license

And how does one join the beta program?

-Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Nar Ganapathy[MS] [mailto:xxxxx@windows.microsoft.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 12:48 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] WDF beta license

I have to second this. While we understand that this is beta, the time
you
spend on learning WDF will be worthwhile for both you and Microsoft. We
are
pretty close. We are not going to add any new features. We really want
to
get your feedback to make sure that our DDIs cover all scenarios. This
is a
chicken and egg problem. If we ship DDIs too soon then we run the risk
of
shipping DDIs that don’t work for all cases. But there is also an
understandable reluctance in the driver community to spend time on WDF
before it ships and hence we don’t get the feedback. Internally at
Microsoft
we are struggling to find the right balance. This is why we have come up

with a beta program. The more experimentation you do with WDF and give
us
feedback, the faster we can incorporate them into our release and ship
it
sooner. We are also working on some incentives for those who give us
good
constructive feedback. In fact you can join the beta program and even
suggest what kind of incentives you would like.

–
Nar Ganapathy
Windows Driver Foundation group
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

“Doron Holan” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
WDF is in a beta stage at this moment. That means that there are things
that are not yet implemented or still need to be rounded out. You
should NOT ship a driver using WDF at this time. We (the WDF team)
would really like for you to experiment with WDF though. That is the
only way you can give us feedback so we can make it better and fix any
bugs that you find.

d

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Tzvetan Mikov
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:03 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] WDF beta license

“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I won’t try to answer the license question, but you should remember
the WDF
> API’s are still in flux. I personally would not assume what I write
today
> will work on WDF when it ships. My own bet is the API’s will not be
frozen
> till 2005.

But does that really matter ? DDK versions are not 100% backward
compatible either. If your driver works well today with this version of
WDF (lets say it passes WHQL), you might want to use it, and since you
can link WDF statically, it will continue to work in the future.

I am about to start a new driver design and it seems that I must use WDM
or the release of the driver would have to depend on the release of WDF,
which as you say may be in 2005.

regards,
Tzvetan

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@windows.microsoft.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@concord.com To
unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com


This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
the system manager.
This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
the latest virus scan software available for the presence of computer
viruses.
—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@osr.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

9

Thanks for the replies. I totally agree about the chicken and the egg …
The best way to learn and test WDF would be by writing a new WDF driver for
“real”, but the problem is that it is difficult to justify it to management (and
to myself) if we won’t be able to use the driver ultimately. Who has time to
write a driver twice ? :frowning:
Is there any expectation of when the WDF will be released ? We were all pretty
excited about it at WinHec, can’t wait to start using it!

regards,
Tzvetan

“Nar Ganapathy[MS]” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I have to second this. While we understand that this is beta, the time you
> spend on learning WDF will be worthwhile for both you and Microsoft. We are
> pretty close. We are not going to add any new features. We really want to
> get your feedback to make sure that our DDIs cover all scenarios. This is a
> chicken and egg problem. If we ship DDIs too soon then we run the risk of
> shipping DDIs that don’t work for all cases. But there is also an
> understandable reluctance in the driver community to spend time on WDF
> before it ships and hence we don’t get the feedback. Internally at Microsoft
> we are struggling to find the right balance. This is why we have come up
> with a beta program. The more experimentation you do with WDF and give us
> feedback, the faster we can incorporate them into our release and ship it
> sooner. We are also working on some incentives for those who give us good
> constructive feedback. In fact you can join the beta program and even
> suggest what kind of incentives you would like.
>
> –
> Nar Ganapathy
> Windows Driver Foundation group
> This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
>
> “Doron Holan” wrote in message
> news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> WDF is in a beta stage at this moment. That means that there are things
> that are not yet implemented or still need to be rounded out. You
> should NOT ship a driver using WDF at this time. We (the WDF team)
> would really like for you to experiment with WDF though. That is the
> only way you can give us feedback so we can make it better and fix any
> bugs that you find.
>
> d

10

We will have a good estimate for a ship date by June. Our goal is to ship
WDF earlier than Longhorn.

Nar Ganapathy

“Tzvetan Mikov” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> Thanks for the replies. I totally agree about the chicken and the egg …
> The best way to learn and test WDF would be by writing a new WDF driver
> for
> “real”, but the problem is that it is difficult to justify it to
> management (and
> to myself) if we won’t be able to use the driver ultimately. Who has time
> to
> write a driver twice ? :frowning:
> Is there any expectation of when the WDF will be released ? We were all
> pretty
> excited about it at WinHec, can’t wait to start using it!
>
> regards,
> Tzvetan
>
>
> “Nar Ganapathy[MS]” wrote in message
> news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>> I have to second this. While we understand that this is beta, the time
>> you
>> spend on learning WDF will be worthwhile for both you and Microsoft. We
>> are
>> pretty close. We are not going to add any new features. We really want to
>> get your feedback to make sure that our DDIs cover all scenarios. This is
>> a
>> chicken and egg problem. If we ship DDIs too soon then we run the risk of
>> shipping DDIs that don’t work for all cases. But there is also an
>> understandable reluctance in the driver community to spend time on WDF
>> before it ships and hence we don’t get the feedback. Internally at
>> Microsoft
>> we are struggling to find the right balance. This is why we have come up
>> with a beta program. The more experimentation you do with WDF and give us
>> feedback, the faster we can incorporate them into our release and ship it
>> sooner. We are also working on some incentives for those who give us good
>> constructive feedback. In fact you can join the beta program and even
>> suggest what kind of incentives you would like.
>>
>> –
>> Nar Ganapathy
>> Windows Driver Foundation group
>> This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>>
>>
>> “Doron Holan” wrote in message
>> news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>> WDF is in a beta stage at this moment. That means that there are things
>> that are not yet implemented or still need to be rounded out. You
>> should NOT ship a driver using WDF at this time. We (the WDF team)
>> would really like for you to experiment with WDF though. That is the
>> only way you can give us feedback so we can make it better and fix any
>> bugs that you find.
>>
>> d
>
>
>