On 15/08/16 18:09, Paul Kocialkowski wrote:
Hi, it appears that there is some misleading information in the EOMA68 news:
* "New Libre Hardware Crowdfunding Project"
Saying that the hardware is libre or free is an overstatement. The integrated
circuits are not libre, so the whole hardware (which covers both integrated
circuits and circuit boards) is not.
Not 100%. Though at the moment, it is very difficult to get 100% libre
hardware, if you are including things such as reproducible HDLs for CPUs.
It is only fairly recently that people are able to run 100% free
software, and that didn't go from 0 to 100% free within the space of a
few years, it took much chiselling away, removing and replacing the bits
that were proprietary, piece by piece.
The circuit board may be libre, but I
couldn't find the circuit board layout description files. Note that schematics
don't make the circuit board libre, but only documented.
Neither could I find these things.
http://rhombus-tech.net/faq/#index14h2
I think the title should be reworked, depending on whether the circuit board
design is libre or not.
* "Respects your freedom"
It is an overstatement to say that the computer can respect freedom. The
computer is composed of both hardware and software aspects. Hardware does not
respect its users freedom (see above). In addition, the hardware has at least
one major feature that cannot work with free software: its GPU. Thus, we can't
say that its software aspects respects freedom (despite being a candidate to
receive the FSF's RYF certification).
I agree.
Thus, it would be more accurate to say that the device is free-software-
friendly, which is vague enough to not be contradictory with the facts.
Of course, this situation is much better than many other computers out there,
that can't even startup without proprietary software.
I agree.
What do you think about making those changes?
Sidenote: I am very happy to see projects such as the EOMA68 come to life, as
they are really moving things forward. However, I also care very much about
providing accurate information, especially after what happened with Purism.
Cheers,
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