Re: Emdebian ARM Sprint
On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Hector Oron <zumbi@debian.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This is an update on Embedded and ARM Sprint email.
>
> Place, dates and venue has been fixed to ARM Headquarters in Cambridge,
oh that's _very_ interesting. how embarrassing for ARM, given their
continued practice of supplying their latest designs with a non-free
build chain and non-free firmware for the MALI GPU engines and
infrastructure. they're trying to take on intel, have a fantastic
opportunity because microsoft *can't* run "the latest" version of
windows on any of these new laptop-class and desktop-class CPUs... and
they're f*****g about with proprietary bulls**t!
apologies for making a copy of the post which was made at
forums.arm.com but the last message asking ARM to state their position
clearly regarding proprietary and NDA-encumbered supply of critical
system libraries was censored. and there weren't even any swearwords
in it.
http://forums.arm.com/index.php?/topic/13855-which-tools-have-you-used-so-far-what-do-you-want-to-see-next/page__gopid__34839#entry34839
reply as follows:
* Unencumbered, unrestricted, royalty-free Free-software-Licensed,
full and complete source code for the entire build chain, to produce
firmware for the MALI GPU Engines - all of them - without requiring an
NDA.
* Unencumbered, unrestricted, royalty-free Free-software-Licensed,
full and complete source code for the present OpenGL firmware which is
available for the MALI GPU Engines - all of them - without requiring
an NDA.
there is not a single good reason to continue the practice of treating
free software developers like lepers, and there is every good reason
to treat the GPU as "just another general-purpose processor".
objection to the above #1 : "we're afraid that someone will rip us off
and make a copy of the GPU engine because they'll know, from the
source code of the compiler, how to replicate the GPU! we'll lose
money!!"
answer #1 to the above objection: don't be ridiculous. you know how
long it takes to produce silicon, and you know what lifetime it will
have. by quotes giving away quotes the GPU's inner workings, any
competitors who quotes rip you off quotes will be approximately 18 to
24 months behind the times, which is an ENTIRE occam's razor
generation too late.
answer #2 to the above objection: don't be ridiculous. imitation is
the sincerest form of flattery.
answer #3 to the above objection: don't be ridiculous. your
competitor is going to ... what... sell silicon, where the toolchain
has "Copyright (C) ARM, Copyright (C) MediaTek" on it??? and all of
the (free software licensed) source code for the OpenGL 3D libraries
has "Copyright (C) ARM, Copyright (C) MediaTek" on it? you should
THANK your competition for advertising YOUR products, free of charge!
additional benefits, in the form of expanding the purposes to which
the GPU can be put, beyond that which your present fascist policy
dictates "Thou Shalt Have What Thou Art Given And Thou Shalt Not Run
Any Firmware Other Than That Which We Deem You Worthy Of Running",
should be blindingly obvious.
btw... _don't_ delete this message from the forum, like the other
messages asking for the firmware source code and the build chain have
been deleted: this issue won't go away. ARM are placing themselves in
enough of an embarrassing situation situation by sponsoring the Debian
2010 Sprint, at ARM's own premises, and are going to discover that not
one single one of the people attending will be in the slightest bit
interested in helping you to get MALI 3D graphics up-and-running on
the latest ARM CPUs, until the entire toolchain, firmware and
libraries are no longer classified as "non-free".
l.
p.s. just in _case_ this is going to be censored (again), it's being
made public elsewhere. i don't like having to repeat myself.
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