On 2007-01-08, Patrick McNamara wrote: > I certainly understand RMS' postion on "free" vs "open" and generally agree > with him, though I differ on some points. I am a bit more pragmatic with an > undertone of idealism. Still, I have concerns about using the word "free" in > the title of a hardware project or the Foundation. While it does pose less > of an issue than "open" in terms of confusing meanings, the big confusion it > does have, between free beer and free speech, causes significant issue with > hardware. In the general sense we will never be producing free as in beer > hardware. This means that any packaging or press materials that reference > "free hardware" will cause serious problems in the general problem. In the > lawsuit happy US, I can certain see someone saying "It said there was free > hardware in the box. I didn't get anything free. I'll sue for false > advertising!" So yes that may be an exageration, but only a little.
I think by applying "free" to "hardware design" rather than "hardware" we would almost eliminate the ambiguity, because the ambiguity of "free software" comes from an amiguity in both words: * free[libre right to use, change, distr] software[source code] * free[gratis right to use] software[final product] Of course, given free software[source code] anyone can produce software[final product]. I don't think "gratis hardware design" (or "gratis source code") has any useful meaning. My understanding is that the purpose of OHF is to promote (1) FOSS friendly hardware, (2) free hardware designs. If (2) is the main goal, then I think "The Foundation for Free Hardware Designs" is a quite precise name (read: pedantically correct). Omitting closed-class words the acronym becomes FFHD. I understand it's tricky to change OHF's name, and maybe not desirable if there is no priority between (1) and (2). On the other hand OHF is maybe the closest analog to the FSF. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
