On Wednesday 10 January 2007 02:54, Timothy Miller wrote: > It has been suggested to me in private that we appear to be discussing > name changes merely because RMS asked us to. This isn't what's > happening, and I feel I should address it. > > RMS and the FSF contacted us for the sole purpose of offering us > support and publicity. Their offer was predicated on us supporting > Free Software, which is our primary goal anyhow. > > After some discussion with RMS about OUR needs, I asked him if there > was anything WE could do for the FSF. And only then did he politely > suggest that using the word "Free" in place of "Open" would help his > cause, and the discussion led thence to the idea of a name change. He > may or may not have thought of that beforehand, but he didn't mention > it until I asked. If RMS's first email to me had begun with > criticism, demanding that we change our name or anything else, I would > have thanked for his time and moved along unaffected. Instead, he > came to us, offering us unconditional support. > > The fact is, if any big FOSS organization were to offer us what the > FSF can give, we'd jump at the chance. Imagine if Red Hat offered us > money and/or free publicity. We'd be ecstatic, and we'd happily > display their logo in prominent locations. The FSF is only different > in that their "logo" (besides the GNU thing) is a philosophy, > represented by words we associate with Freedom. (Plus, the FSF has a > lot more reach.) >
I'm getting less & less excited by using the word 'Free' to describe the hardware... Especially with regard to the OHF. Unless the Free corresponds fairly tightly to 'free to use', then free (As it comes to hardware) comes with connotations of the hardware itself being free. Rather than the intention which may have been one of 1. Free HDL to copy, compile, load & ammend & republish as you wish 2. Free Documentation & use or somewhere inbetween... I think it's a rather big jump to say Free Hardware & the Open Hardware becomes much more descriptive of what we actually set out to achieve. I see being Open as being completely FSF compatible, as Free Software may be crafted without prejudice when the intreface is truely open. H _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
