[Discuss] EOMA68 Libre Hardware Standard and Libre Software project, currently crowd-funding (deadline expires 26th aug 2016)

[lkcl .]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 10:16 PM, Roy Nielsen <amrset at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I see 'open' to be more of an issue of adoption - companies may feel more
> comfortable adopting designs that have a more BSD/MIT software license.
> More adoption, because the license allows for more flexible use.  This
> allows companies to protect their intellectual property. (Intellectual
> property = money in the eyes of business)

 yees... which is where we have immense problems caused by e.g. google
down the line... there's a slashdot article *exactly* about this issue
only just today:
 https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/08/23/1519220/hey-google-want-to-fix-android-updates-hit-oems-where-it-hurts#comments

> I see GNU software 'free' as in the design stays free, even when modified.
> Because of the strict nature of the license, companies are wary of entering
> in to an agreement where they might have to give away their secret sauce -
> or even patented intellectual property.

 which doesn't quite explain why thinkpenguin's business model exists
(and is highly successful).

> Patents are worth money.  Rendering a patent useless for the sake of 'free'
> is like a company throwing away a suitcase full of money, without attempting
> to protect it.  I could see why bean counters and lawyers would dislike
> 'free' over 'open'.

 except... IBM some considerable time ago dropped an entire bunch of
patents into a pool and invited others to do the same... which,
amazingly, they did!

 in short: we can *choose* whatever we want.  we can *choose* a
successful business model based around Libre ethical principles
(because we know it causes less headaches for ourselves)... or we can
*choose* to propagate the current paradigm, with the short-term gains,
and a whole publicly-documented and painfully much-repeated set of
issues.

 it's a freely-made choice... and here's the thing: in the software
world it's a painful choice because we have to "go without" (such as
"going without built-in WIFI").  but in the hardware world, we can
choose *components* that respect libre principles.  thinkpenguin's
business model is based around this... *and it works*.  the only
support issues he gets are when people plug in libre-compliant
hardware into FAULTY controller boards, or when a built-in WIFI module
isn't in the proprietary BIOS "whitelist" - a practice carried out by
IBM, now Lenovo, Dell and many others so that they can overcharge for
replacement WIFI PCIe modules and stand a chance of making at least a
slim profit.

 and that's why i'm ringing "alarm bells" about the use of the word
"open" in the "OSHWA" and "OHANDA", because although the OHANDA
definition is *clearly* libre (it's a verbatim application of the Four
Freedoms to hardware), the word "open" is *known* to be a
lobster-trap.

 if it's ok with you all i'm going to ask if paul or david boddie have
some time to chip in, here.  paul's recovering from hospitalisation a
couple months back, but his blog posts (especially those on the
fairphone as a reference / example) are extremely insightful.

l.