On 1/10/07, Hamie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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.
I'm not sure that anyone likes the name "Free Hardware Foundation" or
any of those things. In fact, the only place we've all agreed that
"Free" and "Hardware" go together is when the word "Design" is
included.
I'm thinking we need to do something more clever than just shove the
word "Free" into the name. Something more like "Hardware Liberation
Society." Perhaps we need to be more specific by what we mean by
"Hardware" too, such as "Computer Hardware Liberation Society." (If
you try hard enough, you can actually pronounce "CHLS." :)
For the OGP, I think "Graphics Liberation Project" (or whatever it was
exactly) is at the top of my list right now.
Using the word "Liberation," we can define it how we need to. We're
liberating the hardware. Not necessarily its design but its specs so
that we can support Free Software. Liberation does not exactly equal
Free. But it doesn't go AGAINST it either, and RMS has pointed out
where certain Open Source people have actively spoken out AGAINST Free
Software values.
--
Timothy Miller
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti
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