eTech Magazine

>The article, "Treading the Boards" states that mbed is "open-source". Is that true?

No. At this moment in time, the mbed SDK is closed source, but the object code and headers are available to mbed users, and is free to use in commercial products if you choose.

> It's also a bit out-of-date, saying that the "current implementation" is LPC1768 - the Cortex-M0 version has been available (including from RS!) since the end of last year!

Correct.  This was however the case when the eTech copy was submitted.

> Is it correct to suggest that all user-developed software is public? I thought it only became public if you made it so?

Correct. As with other web applications your code remains private unless you wish to publish it. There are a lot of advantages of publishing code, as it enables whole projects and user library implementations to be exchanged by URL - great for collaboration

> And instructions are provided for using "traditional", locally-installed development tools like Keil...

Correct. A project started in the mbed Online compiler can be exported to various offline tools, such as MDK, Code Red, GCC (code sourcery). Exporting presents a zip file containing the project code, mbed SDK files and even the project files (or makefile).