Timothy Miller wrote:
On 10/12/06, Lance Hanlen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
We are only suggesting we get
some attention by using our very real achievement to back up WHY we're
doing it.
What is our very real achievement? More than one person has commented
that we should have OGD1 out before we do something like this. Having
that, the vaporware problem goes away (mostly), and we can speak from
a position of strength.
I think that in Theo's view (though I am just guessing here) that our
real achievement is that enough people have seen the problem that exists
with current hardware and enough people believe that it can be fixed
that they have been willing to commit their time, effort, and in several
cases money to try and do something about it. It would be equivalent to
the early days of GNU when RMS got fed up with the Unix status quo and
began working to fix the deficiencies he saw by creating the GNU utilities.
We have identified that their is a problem with the closed nature of
current hardware and have begun taking steps to fix that. While our
focus is actually on creating the video card, perhaps as important is
the creation of the OGD1 board. While we are needed it as a means to an
end, it will also be a fully functional (I suppose that depends on your
definition of functional) development environment for other projects as
well. Admittedly the first board is focused on graphics but, like many
OSS projects that is because we need it to do that.
Fortunately, we have an OGD1 board. Unfortunately, it's missing the
RAM chips, so it doesn't make for good photos. Perhaps we should
begin with a photo of a blank board. People like annotated
progression stories. I wouldn't push a major media blitz about that
(let this 'intermediate' bit of news trickle out via the grapevine),
however, until we have photos of a fully-populated board.
If there are good reasons to act sooner, rather than later, then let's
keep going, but first we need to be sure we anticipate all of the
questions people will raise. Let's work this out here in this
discussion.
___
I have found it quite interesting to read the opinions this topic has
generated. From the philosophy/advocacy side of things we have the
argument that the identification of the problem and action on that
problem is the newsworthy item and is the important achievement. The
creation of the physical thing is a side effect. From the
pragmatic/business side of things the creation of the physical thing
that supports the underlying philosophy is the important achievement.
Without it the philosophy is just a bunch of talk.
My general take is that both side are correct in their own way. I would
not start loudly proclaiming how great we are compared to other
companies/groups without something to back it up. Personally, I would
never go so far as RMS or Theo to proclaim my philosophy. While I
greatly respect both for what they have done and what their philosophies
are, IMHO they have crossed into the "fringe zealot" realm (RMS
especially) and it has begun to hurt their influence and certainly their
perception by the non tech crowd.
To back up the philosophies claim, we need a piece of hardware. We need
OGD1. Given that we can start with the more forceful espousing of our
philosophy surrounding open hardware. We will be able to explain the
problem we see, what we are doing to solve that problem, and be able to
show that we really are more than a bunch of hot air. From that point,
as new uses crop up for OGD1 or milestones are made with OGP development
that can be demoed on an OGD1 we can push that information out along
with corresponding philosophical points. As we move forward and make
milestones or new projects use the OGD1 for other things, we do not want
to miss the opportunity to point out the technical benefits of having
access to open hardware, as well as the limitations that are imposed by
commercial closed hardware when compared to our approach.
Patrick M
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
