On 7/10/06, Timothy Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'd like to start with some more comments about the release of the
RTL. One concern is being ripped off. But some have suggested that
is unlikely. Whether it does or not, there's another factor that's
even more important.
The issue at hand is OGA becoming functionally obsolete from a revenue
perspective. If someone undercuts us, and they take away too much
business, that obsoletes the design. We should be sure that when the
RTL is released (under a Free Software license--it could be released
sooner under a much more restrictive license), we should suffer very
little from the revenue going suddenly to zero.
But an even bigger concern is that of how customers and business
partners will perceive us now "giving away for free" our design. To
many, even if we're the only source for the hardware, it's still
valueless when we have no trade secrets protecting it. Others will
assume we don't care about it anymore and will therefore EOL it, so
they'll be uninterested when it comes to anything the least bit
long-term. Old-school business people will see nothing but
disadvantages to having our design completely open and will therefore
dismiss it outright. To many corporate users of Linux, they see it
only as a way for THEM to save money on software licensing; nothing
more, nothing less. Free Software doesn't really hold any intrinsic
value to them other than to increase profit margins.
Let's be realistic (or at least conservative) about our sales
estimates for OGA-based boards and chips. Hundreds of individual
people will buy an OGC board right off. Hundreds does not sustain a
business. Linux hardware vendors will be the next to pick it up, but
they'll be slow to adopt it (often due to general sluggishness of the
way businesses work when acquiring new products). Even when OGC1 is
listed as an option, ATI and nVidia cards will still be at the top of
the list, and hardware vendors who sell servers don't give a damn
about graphics--the unaccelerated nv driver is more than enough.
Linux hardware vendors are businesses too, with a need to make profit
and cranky customers to deal with. Precisely just how "free" the
graphics card is is a minor point in the grand scheme of things.
Mind you, OGC1 could sell 100 thousand in the first month. Who knows!
But we can't count on that. This is why we're assuming we'll sell
primarily to so-called high-end embedded. That is, small systems used
in kiosks, single-board computers, high-end handhelds, etc. In the
embedded space we're after, price is the most important thing,
followed by ease of using the dev kit; performance, features, and
power consumption come in last as a practical matter, but the
buzzwords sell things. This market doesn't care about Free Software,
but they DO care about sustainable supply, which is threatened by us
ostensibly devaluing it by "giving it away for free."
Traversal cannot be fighting an ideological battle with a vocal
minority in the FOSS community that thinks software and hardware
development are magic (to quote someone I was just talking to who can
identify himself if he likes). They want a free ride, in part because
they don't think software (or hardware) development takes any effort
(or don't care that it does). [We talk about FOSS developers being
demanding towards hardware vendors, but many FOSS users are much more
demanding towards the FOSS developers.] The economics of this is over
their heads, or they're just anti-capitalist; who knows. They're a
minorty, but they're really good at specious arguments that too-easily
lead others astray, blindly repeating arguments about things needing
to be "libre" without understanding what that really means or that
achieving freedom is a gradual process or that freedom is also a
responsibility or that freedom is not the same as anarchy. We at
Traversal just need to DO OUR JOB, which is to develop the hardware.
The political battles need to be fought elsewhere.
This is where the OHF comes in. While Traversal isolates the OHF from
the hassles and risks of dealing with a corporate world that does not
share our values, the OHF needs to isolate Traversal from the
political battles. The OHF will be a representative body made up of
appointed and elected representatives of the FOSS community at large.
The OHF needs to be made up of smart people who have the community's
needs in mind and understand the value of what we're trying to do here
and work to protect that. To the OHF, Traversal is a vital tool,
something they desperately need to achieve their goals of having open
hardware, so the OHF is in a position of great responsibility, where
they need to make sure that Traversal does not fail or become
obsolete. Similarly, Traversal cannot design products without
feedback from the community or sustain a community developer base
without the OHF.
I don't ever want to have to have Traversal say it's too soon to
release the RTL. This will just make us look greedy and willing to go
back on our promises. Rather, I want the RTL to be in the hands of
the OHF, people who are not part of Traversal, and I want them to be
the ones to recognize when it's safe or not to release it. This way,
if sales of OGC1 are much lower than expected, and we have to wait
longer before starting OGA2, Traversal can share that with the OHF,
and the OHF can be the ones to take the blame, so to speak. The point
is that it's the community's decision, and the community
representatives still have the RTL in their possession. If Traversal
has sensitive financial information that cannot be publically
released, we can privately share it with OHF members so that they can
objectively see our situation. Traversal will live or die based on
the wisdom of the FOSS community. Please don't let us die.
It's important that people understand my motives and view of myself
here. I'm the founder of the OGP, because I want to have an open
graphics card in every computer I own. I'm a Linux geek with an
unwavering belief in the power of freedom. Closed-source software
takes away certain freedoms from people that they should be allowed to
retain. I do believe in someone's right to copyright and license
their work however they choose, but I don't have to appreciate every
possible choice. I believe in the GPL not for the free ride but for
the power that it puts in the hands of so many people working together
to advance computing technology and enhance everyone's lives with it.
To me, having an open graphics card is a huge step in the right
direction. Primarily, I don't see myself as president of Traversal.
That's just a responsibility I've taken on as a necessary step in
achieving our goals (and an expensive and inconvenient thing at that).
Primarily, I see myself as a person who has both a strong technical
background and an intense desire to accomplish something with it, just
like so many other FOSS developers. Although I love talking with
people, designing graphics chips is what I want to do most of all.
I'm an engineer, not a businessman. I'm just wearing the businessman
hat as a means to get to design more graphics cards. This is my
personal itch, and I desperately want to scratch it.
The OGP (a loose-knit group of interested individuals), the OHF (an
organized elected body of FOSS developers interested in open
hardware), and Traversal (a group of engineers and business people)
are not separable. They're different organs in the same body. First,
there was the OGP, and out of that will have grown Traversal and the
OHF, integral, necessary steps to achieve the plan. Without one, all
the rest suffer, stagnate, and die.
[Perhaps it's best not to think of Traversal as referring to any
particular people. There are just Andy, Howard, and Tim, members of
the OGP, who have put together a corporate identity as a means to do
their part of the bigger plan. Similarly, I will not think of OHF
members as being in any way dissociated from the OGP.]
Let's make this work, because we all need it.
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Well stated sir ;)
Gary
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