On 5/24/06, Dieter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Actually, it's a double-edged sword. Without putting GPL on the RTL,
> I can't get enough community support, but many people who would buy
> our products would shy away from them on the grounds that someone may
> legally copy our design and put us out of business. A vendor need
> staying power, and it's hard for them to have that when they "give
> away" every detail.
Why would the possibility of a copycat product make customers shy away?
They wouldn't. That isn't the problem.
They would then have a 2nd source. Having a 2nd source used to be
considered a good thing, often considered essential.
Second sourcing is fine for the customer. But if it puts the
designers out of business, you only get one chip. Who's going to
design the next one?
Take a moment to reflect on the history of the OGP. Between when we
started in October of 2004 and now, how much hardware have we sold?
How much have we DESIGNED? Now imagine what things would be like if I
decided that I had better things to do with my time.
The only way we'll ever be able to put out new hardware at any kind of
reasonable rate is if I do this as my full-time job. I'm creating a
business out of this purely for pragmatic reasons, those being that I
would like to actually manufacture some real hardware, and this is the
most effective way I can see to do it. If someone makes it impossible
for me to conduct business, then I'm out of a job. At the moment, I
have the uncertainty and hope for the future pushing me along. I
dream about people being able to buy open-architecture graphics
hardware so we don't have to put up with proprietary drivers anymore.
If I could know for certain that this was never going to work, I
wouldn't waste my time. If I produce a product but I can't sell it,
then that uncertainty and hope disappear.
Get it?
If copying a free/open design is such a slam-dunk business plan,
why isn't Microsoft selling MS-Linux or MS-BSD ?
For Microsoft, that would dilute their business model. The more they
support an alternative OS, the less control they have over the world.
They would be eliminating the one thing that keeps them a the top:
vendor lock-in.
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
