On Sat, 1 Jul 2006 14:52:18 +0000, Travers Buda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:45:55 -0700 >"J.C. Roberts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Howdy misc@ >> >> Though I stayed out of the last public fiasco regarding HiFn here on >> the misc@ list, I privately contacted the people I know at the >> company. I didn't reply just to Hank Cohen who posted here on misc@ >> but I also included the VP of engineering (Russ Dietz), the CEO >> (Chris Kebner) and the VP of marketing (Tom Moore). >> >> I just got a call this afternoon from Tom Moore to let me know they've >> set up an anon FTP site (no registration) with their documentation: >> >snip >> >> Kind Regards, >> JCR > >JCR, how did you procure this ftp site for us? Are you just that good >friends with the people ot hifn, or perhaps you employed some >suggestion we didn't think of? > >We complained and made a public fiasco, did that have much of anything >to do with getting the free docs? Or was it all you? > >Travers Hi Travers, Wow, I think this is the first time I've ever been accused of brevity and leaving out details. Normally, I'm a yammering chatterbox spouting more details than you ever wanted to know. I've recently been trying to take brevity lessons but I just keep failing to get it. (; Sometimes I forget there are always new people joining OpenBSD and the misc@ list, so they haven't been around for years and years. -And sometimes new people would rather ask a question than go searching through the misc@ archives to do their own homework... It was not all me. I'm just one guy and I didn't do much. There are *many* people involved with the OpenBSD project or within HiFn that helped to make this happen. Around 2001 there was a policy change at HiFn which restricted access to the required documentation. Originally Theo had tried being nice with them in requesting open access to the docs but nothing ever happened. Then there was some bad publicity due their reluctance to change their policy. By 2004 it had become a real problem for HiFn customers using OpenBSD, particularly those who use the Soekris design, and there was no way to fix bugs without the docs. Since I live in the Los Gatos area where the HiFn headquarters is located, in 2004 I took the time to actually go meet with Russ Dietz (VP Eng/ CTO) and Chris Kebner (CEO) regarding the documentation issue. They are great guys. Though they agreed in principal to opening the docs, due to internal company politics (and probably reasons I don't know), nothing was ever done. If a company wants to have a closed documentation policy, it's really their choice to make. After all, it's their business. On the other hand, OpenBSD is committed to quality and correctness, so when a vendor leaves developers without the documentation necessary to do things right, the quality suffers and often support for such products is either stopped or removed. In the case of HiFn, though the docs were not released, the existing support for their products was not removed. Some argue it was a better compromise than removing support completely and telling people to throw away the hardware they had purchased. Earlier this month a low level HiFn employee showed up on this list looking to prove his bravado by starting a fight, trying to make the developers look bad, spreading fud, telling lies, insulting people and generally trying to cause problems... -Those of you on the list which keep blasting Theo for expecting an apology should probably try to look at it from his point of view. You don't have to agree with him, but you should be able to see and admit that there is some validity to his reasoning. By the time I had even noticed the row, Theo had already set the record straight, the fiasco had been being picked up by various news sites and all the flame wars had already commenced. If you were an executive with fiduciary responsibility for the success of a company, you would certainly want to know about a rouge employee going out in public under your company name to pick fights, cause ill will and further stress an already strained situation. I once again contacted the people I previously met at HiFn to let them know how their loose cannon was out causing a marketing nightmare. Though polite, I was not particularly kind about it and I included links to all the various nonsense going on the `net regarding their company. Being that the fiasco had become a marketing nightmare, when contacting the others I also included Tom Moore, their VP of Marketing, who I did not know. Tom not only took care of the problem but he also got the policy changed, had the FTP site built and when complete, he picked up the phone and called me to let me know. I just relayed the information of their decision here to the list. I'm obviously not a super genius, a godly systems coder or some highly influential man about town. I'm just a regular OpenBSD user who put a bit of effort into advocacy and getting things changed. As you can see from above (and the misc@ archives), I miserably failed on my first attempt in 2004 to get the policy changed. Anyone on this list could have done what I did. If you're a user who enjoys having supported hardware, put some effort into getting both documentation and hardware into the hands of the developers who want to work on it. In comparison to development, advocacy is easy and anyone can do it. JCR -- Free, Open Source CAD, CAM and EDA Tools http://www.DesignTools.org
