Hello, Celebrating FSF30, I consider this. It would be good if I could listen your opinions.
Background: Last month, we had a monthly meeting at FSIJ (Free Software Initiative of Japan) for RTOS named Chopstx. The topic was its support of Raspberry Pi 2, which was proposed by Kaz Kojima. Listening his presentation, I realized that the board should be considered a proprietary platform from the view point of lower-level software; It seems that the hardware information is difficult to access (if any), and the idea is like: kernel and/or drivers should be written and distributed under control of hardware vendor. We concluded that: if it is user-space programming hands-on, it would be OK to use the board in some specific situation, but we should inform this situation to participants. Now, I'm seeking another board of multi-core Cortex-A7 to merge Kaz's work to my repository. Idea: Guideline for technology hands-on and something like free software directory for educational materials, which care Reproducibility and Computer Users' Freedom Explanation: My concern is that access to technology is getting easier, but I think that there is a practice in the industry to put a trap towards proprietary technology/software/business under the name of education. For software, we have the free software definition, free licenses like GNU GPL, free software directory, free system distribution guidelines, etc., and a pile of free software itself. That's great achievement of FSF. On top of this great achievement, I think it's good to encourage to run free technology hands-on with free educational materials (free, as in freedom, from the view point of Computer Users' Freedom, and Reproducibility by third party, no bound to specific proprietary technology/software/business). Or, it is very important to inform about computer users' freedom, to people who only have technical interests. Achieving 100% freedom of all levels would be difficult. Say, I don't have capability to reproduce CPU by myself, even if all technical information were available. I think that it is OK for some GNU Operating System hands-on to assume using PC (with somewhat old CPU). If we use newer CPU, it's better to address vendor's microcode update. My point is that it is fair to disclose scope of freedom and limitations. Well, this is just an idea, an immature idea. I'll join FSF30 Birthday Party. Please say hello when you recognize me there. Happy FSF30 and Happy Hacking, --
