On 06/29/2016 07:17 PM, Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo wrote: > On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 10:52:36AM +1200, Koz Ross wrote: >> I just came across this amazing project: >> https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop >> >> Needless to say - I've supported it, because I believe we need more projects >> like this one if we are to free our computing. The fact that they're going >> full libre *and* seeking RYF certification is great *just by itself*, but >> the use of recycling, the eco-friendliness of the project and the *wooden* >> casings are just icing on an amazing cake for me. >> >> I'm just posting it to this list, as I want as many people as possible to >> hear >> about something which I believe deserves our support (and money). > > Note that the A20 SOC comes with a Mali GPU, which does not have a free > driver that I know of. There are reverse engineering efforts, in the > Lima project, but lack of manpower means it has yet to produce a driver > users could install. > > You probably can use it as a framebuffer with some simple framebuffer > driver, but this is hardly ideal as the project page seems to imply. > > I am always cautious when I see something that says 100% Free when it > comes to hardware support. Of course, they can ship something that they > can claim is 100% Free, but not without missing some important hardware > support. I would love for some future where we will reach an ideal > situation and I try to build it when possible. I think they are trying > to do that too, but the lack of this important information is > disappointing.
The idea here is that there will be several different products that people can choose to fund. Not all products are seeking FSF's Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification. The products that are seeking RYF certification will not have a functioning Mali GPU chip, it will not be advertised as a feature to be used with that product, and graphics support will be provided by the main CPU. The general rule we have is that if a product has a co-processors that will not work without added nonfree software, then we will decide on a case by case basis whether or not we will award RYF certification to that product. The situation we do not want is where a person buys some hardware expecting certain functionality and they discover that it does not have that functionality available to them and so they immediately go ahead and install some nonfree firmware to make use of the coprocessor that would otherwise be disabled and non-functional. In this particular situation, the RYF certified hardware will use the main processor for graphics and the Mali chipset will not be functional or enabled. It is our assumption that a person purchasing an RYF certified product will not be lead to install nonfree software, especially given the fact that there are similar products readily available to them which do have a functional GPU requiring the ue of nonfree software. We have not yet awarded the use of RYF certification mark on the final product. But, we have allowed a provisional use of the RYF certification mark in this marketing material under the condition that if RYF certification is not achieved on the final product by the time the products are available, then those who funded the project could have the option of seeking a refund if they choose. This is stated on the page. This decision to allow provisional use of RYF certification mark and name came after extensive discussion with all parties involved in the marketing of this fundraising campaign and only after receiving a prototype board for initial review. Awarding the use of RYF certification on the product itself and in conjunction with the sale of the actual product can only be done after we have tested and reviewed samples of the final products and marketing material. Please let me know if you have any questions.
