El Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 05:05:46AM +0100, Alexander .S.T. Ross deia:
libre hardware sounds good to me.
It sounds well but I don't really know the definitions out there and the stablished usage of terms. Arguing about words is tricky, specially without verily through understanding of their use. Ethimology or synthetic meaning from name components only gets you so far. Words mean what people take them to mean.
hmm ill have to ask others what hardware means to them.
Software is information on how to solve a problem with a computer, hardware is the computer, wetware is the users who have the problem (including developers).
For me anything hard to change is hardware, anything easy to change is software. Hence the sensible FSF position on software on ROMs being like hardware and software in EEPROMs being like software.
Then the question comes of hard _for whom_ to change. With signed blobs there is software that is only soft for the vendor, not for the users. With unsigned proprietary software the user may be able to uninstall and replace it, but not do modifications, so it is softer for the vendor than for the consumer. Free software is real soft for everyone involved. Copyleft software is real soft for everyone involved forever. Yet free software project governance can change a little its stiffness and fragility. Hence that NASA engineer phrase "if it ain't source, ain't software". I'd say "if it isn't source, it isn't soft enough software".
Another question is _when_ something is software and when it is hardware. In my view IP blocks start as software, maybe files written in Verilog, VHDL or more modern languages, and gets passed around and adapted. Then it is transformed to some other forms of software, and in the fab it becomes hardware (no it doesn't, some copies of it are made which are hardware, not exact copies, and the original software, the hardware design remains, but the user often doesn't see it). Now nobody can change it anymore (the hardware design can evolve into different hardware, but the hardware copies can't be changed). Just like catle is catle when it's alive and meat when killed, then you can only eat it but you can't make it grow, milk it or breed and grow your herd. So all farmers try to have some cattle breed before killing it.
Software becomes hardware when put in a ROM ? And in a CDROM ? It depends. You can usually easily exchange a CDROM for another, you can also copy it to RW media, and modify it. So your dead cow can be resurrected. It's easier to just say the cow wasn't dead. Then there are DRM and copy protection tricks that make life harder for your veterinary. You may be able to change a socketed ROM but still need to have one etched with the new software and that is not too easy if it isn't an EEPROM.
That interpretation works for me, but I'm not aware of being official or wildly supported. It's simplistic and can be in trouble with details, but it's "good enough" defining. People get confused with firmware, FPGAs, efuses, etc. Hardware developers have it more difficult, because they don't look at things from the end of project perspective, so they don't see it like users. They (mostly) think on how to make hardware better when it still is software. So they tend to forget it won't be hardware until they stop improving it. They modify software but they are really thinking on the effects on the hardware copies (in extreme cases they may even think on the distortions introduced by the copy-to-hardware process). Just like farmers might apply decisions to live cattle thinking on the taste or health effects in the meat, and that does not make them cooks. And the copy of the designs, which stays software, can breed and produce improved new hardware revisions, which will again be software until they're done and become hardware. Just like the farmer can selectively breed to get better meat in future generations.
Last time I saw RMS at a conference he was asked about Libre hardware (or similar, I don't remember the exact terms) and he answered more or less that libre hardware doesn't exist, at least until we get some photocopier for circuits, but libre hardware designs are very good (but out of scope for him). More or less. I don't remember well. I could look it up if it is recorded. The distiction is important but it is understandably to just say libre hardware meaning "hardware which comes with its libre hardware designs so the user can play farmer (or hire farmers)".
And it seems some people are buying live cows. 78% of funds at 97% of days, but 509 compute cards, 41 pass through cards, and 100 laptops (assembled or kits). According to lkcl that makes into viable territory for the laptop too... (although the criteria is not clear, lkcl has already said it is better to leave the detailed analysis for after the campaign, one of the early updates projected 500 cards and 140 laptops and thought it OKish, at some point he said if there were 500 cards it might do with just 100 laptops, and the last message there concentrates on capital for travel, development and sustenance).
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/really-cool-modular-and-freedom-res...
Btw. luke, this patch might "donate" 180$ to you ? http://rhombus-tech.net/crowdsupply/assess_campaign.py --- assess_campaign.py 2016-08-24 09:39:14.925861053 +0200 +++ assess_campaign4.py 2016-08-24 09:45:14.025302579 +0200 @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
# PCB etc. extras (test, packaging, shipping) sticker_cost = 4.0 + 3.0 -tshirt_cost = 20.0 + 5.0 # QTY 20 is $10 +tshirt_cost = 10.0 + 5.0 # QTY <20 is $20 cc_cost = 30.0 + 10.0 laptop_cost = 166.0 + 120.0 desktop_cost = 20.0 + 10.0 @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ print "spare:", spare print "nres: ", nres print "after nres:", spare - nres -cards = num_eoma68_a20s + num_breakouts +cards = num_eoma68_a20s + num_passthroughs sockets = num_desktops + num_laptops + num_breakouts print "total MOQ cards", cards print "total MOQ sockets", sockets