Hi Robert, you missed the fact we have now Free Software and Corporate Free Software Open or not, it doesn't matter. Corporate Free Software is built for embedded devices. It would be nice to have Free Software Foundation to give a helpful hand in discovering which way global corporations and developers should go. Global Alliance on Free Software/ Open Source Free Software is a good idea, I have already proposed at this place.
Transfer of Intellectual Property Rights is an issue donating Open Source Free Software developed by third parties to corporations. Darius Think-Tank Nokia Internet (WIMAX) Tablet GG http://groups.google.com/group/nokia-internet-tablet?hl=en --- On Mon, 2/6/08, Robert Schuster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Robert Schuster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Hello Maemo - CFSONID 2008 To: maemo-developers@maemo.org Date: Monday, 2 June, 2008, 1:28 PM Hi! (If some bits sound to serious for your taste, take them with a grain of salt.) I finally subscribed to this list because I think the time is right. I attended LinuxTag 2008 in Berlin/Germany a few days ago. Quim Gil and other people from Nokia and the Maemo community were there. In the first Maemo talk Quim invited the community to speak out to Nokia (Btw: really Nokia or just the OSSO team?) and I want to participate therein. If you attended the first talk I was the guy asking to raise your hand if you want to see the Nokia IT devices being freed of all proprietary software in one way (install a different OS) or another (make IT OS 100% free itself). This brings us right to the topic: Free Software - free as in freedom, you know. :) I was *not* asking the question to show the Nokia staff that there are more than just '5 free software' visionaries in Maemo but mainly because I reported this[0] bug last year and was missing noticeable support from other free software friends. I know that some really good people have already given up on this topic and rest assured that this will also be my last attempt to subvert this community. ;) So the question at the talk was for me to find out whether I am really alone with my views. Apparantly it also made all of you show that you are not alone, too. :) Ok, Quim introduced the '10 action days'. My impression is that they would like to hear stuff like 'add feature X to the website', 'port application foo to maemo' or something else from that category. I have no suggestion like that because I strongly believe that a healthy free software community can fix any technical deficiency on their own. You are not a zealot like me and need an argument now? Ok. The free software scene came nearly out of nothing. Although free programs existed long before Linux was written, there was no organisation of those. One of the early communities that rallied together to make a change was Debian. It evolved from nothing to something that commercial free software vendors *want* to base their products on. Debian is the distribution Maemo was derived from. Ok, let me state some stuff before it gets hairy: - I do not consider someone/an organisation/company evil here. There are just different fears, opinions, convictions, way of doings etc. resulting in different behavior. - I consider the OSSO team at Nokia to be more open to FOSS than any other part in that company and that those guys are restricted by company policies. If there is something to fix than it will have most likely to do with that other parts. - I am very thankful for every contribution from Nokia staff to the free software community. However I treat every non-free part of the IT OS if it does not exist when it comes to being thankful. - If not said otherwise I speak in the name of those Maemo users who know that FOSS is the way to go. Everyone is free to completely disagree with my views & opinions. Over time I learned about a few reasons why companies keep their Linux-based operating systems closed or deny NDA-free access to specification. Here are some: a) treaties/contracts made with chipset vendors (e.g. ARM, TI) enforce a certain non-disclosure of specifications b) fear of being imitated/plagiated by ... well manufacturers that are *specialized* in doing so c) company-wide policies that enforce a certain working style or common standards in different company sections (set up to make it easier to cope with national laws/regulations from *inside* the company[1]) d) fear of appearing less unique to the customer (something marketing people preach) e) fear of 'eating away' market share from other inhouse devices (especially from those where the margin is higher :) ) Without knowing anything from inside OSSO/Nokia in this regard I still hope that those reasons apply more or less to them because I want to base this year's "Campaign for Software Freedom on Nokia IT devices (tm)"[2] on them. ;) What the campaign is hoping to achieve is the following: 1) Users should be able to install any compatible OSes on their Nokia IT devices they wish like one can do on their desktop computers. 2) It should be possible to port and put Maemo on other non-Nokia devices like it is possible to e.g. port Fedora to any machine. - The means to achieve this goal are the following: 1) All software in Maemo should be licensed under free software licenses (I do not care about Skype, Flash, etc). 2) Either specifications or free software drivers should be provided for the components in the Nokia IT devices. To achieve those goals the following things should be adhered to: * Tackle one bit after another. Please prioritize important things (e.g. virtual keyboard/handwriting recognition & battery management). If things start moving the communities' reward is patience. Feel free to make a big fuss when each component is freed. The free software community will party together with you. * Future software/hardware releases should not add non-free components Remember that there is always more than one way. E.g. the free software community can certainly accept a proprietary GSM modem which responds to AT commands or a GPS module providing NMEA[3]. - On the one hand it would be totally cool to get the existing devices freed and many people would welcome that BUT if all fails and non-OSSO Nokia staff cannot be convinced that this would be a remarkable and trust encouraging move THEN the fallback plan is to bring future devices into a better FOSS shape. That way we will have fully free (as in freedom) devices in say 2 or 3 generations. The free software heart aches when saying that but I accept that at this point in time Nokia's HW lab will already have designed the next devices and there is no possibility to make substantial changes without causing high re-engineering costs. - Benefits: I am not a lawyer, marketing expert, economist or else. Ask them if you want advice. However a commodization of portable devices like the ITs is likely. Firms and communities could also more easily order a bunch of Nokia devices and make use of them for special tasks (without having to sign special contracts, of course). - This is really a long mail. I stop here and present the short plan: I will distill the above stuff into an 'official' statement, put it online somewhere (Maemo Wiki?) and let supporting users subscribe to it. The final document is then given to Nokia/OSSO as part of the 'action days' and if the interest from them is not zero ... well, then you will read more mails from me. I also hope^H^H^H^H expect more people to chime in then. After all this our common goal, isn't it? Well done if you made it this far. If you are thinking about replying please use your time productively. I am not inviting to a discussion - instead I presented a plan. You either contribute to it or let us go ahead without your support. Regards Robert [0] - https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1584 [1] E.g. in order to sell Nokia devices in some random country a number of employees must be trained to deal with support and warranty questions. Stuff like this is what customers expect from a multi-national company. [2] The acronym would be rather CSFONID but CFSONID can be pronounced ziff-sonid and I like that more. Call it whatever you like. ;) [3] Rest assured that one day GPS and GSM hardware will be produced as open hardware._______________________________________________ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
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