[email protected] wrote:
But is it truly free software?
http://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/
I'm guessing you meant to ask if this hardware works fully with only
free software installed. According to a couple of the responses made
after you posted the link here, the answer is no: Yowan, one such
poster, claims that Allwinner is "hostile", a "serial GPL violator", who
don't provide "proper documentation".
If this is the case, it doesn't seem wise to me to do business with
organizations that want to sell you dependency on non-freedom (such as
non-free blobs needed to get the system running) regardless of the price
of the device. I don't find "derekdickerson"'s reply to be substantive
or convincing.
If there are free software programs to run this entire board's
capabilities with free software (including the BIOS), I'd happily help
sponsor such efforts. I'd also hope that they would submit the board to
be evaluated by the FSF for inclusion in the Respects Your Freedom
campaign (https://www.fsf.org/ryf).
