On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Gordan Bobic <gordan@bobich.net> wrote:in the first place), why has the MX53QSB not been chosen as the boardfor the freedombox foundation to honour its obligations to its kickstarter sponsors?Another thing worth considering is the cost. SheevaPlugs go for about $99, and they don't require anything else to be functional - just plug in and go. The Freescale boards you mention cost 50% more (without the discount), and still require a PSU and some kind of a box to put them into. That gives atotal cost of about double what you'll pay for a SheevaPlug.for the small supply of hardware to sponsors, that would work. the freescale boards are based on low-volume pricing.
I cannot really comment on that, I can only comment from the end-user point of view, and from that point of view, SheevaPlugs come out ahead in terms of cost and in terms of how well the mainline kernel supports the hardware.
so it depends what's more important to the freedombox foundation. toput out a message that it's "ok that CPU Manufacturers are dishonourable and only provide information under NDA, and we, the FreedomBox Foundation fully and actively support and endorse this behaviour, as evidenced by our supply of units to our Sponsors".
I wouldn't call the behaviour you describe as dishonourable, merely business limiting (or at least it should be, contrary to the example we are discussing here). I can understand the moreal-hazard aspect of your argument, though.
Gordan