[Rant] osopinion: Close That Open Hardware! | ANN.lu |
Posted on 12-Jun-2002 00:21 GMT by sutro | 169 comments View flat View list |
A rather unispired article at best. Read
here for more.
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List of all comments to this articleSorted by date, most recent at bottom |
Comment 1 | Alkis Tsapanidis | | 11-Jun-2002 22:36 GMT |
Comment 2 | TBone | | 11-Jun-2002 23:31 GMT |
Comment 3 | [JC] | | 11-Jun-2002 23:31 GMT |
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osopinion: Close That Open Hardware! : Comment 4 of 169 | ANN.lu |
Posted by gz on 12-Jun-2002 00:16 GMT | The problem amiga inc faces now is the fact that there hasn't been anyone claiming control over the hardware/software market since commodore went bust.
Since those days there hasn't been anyone telling developers and manufacturers what they can't do on the amiga market. Phase5 created their own solution with their ppc boards and other hw companies too have created their own. All these products were called "amiga" products as they were targeted to improve the performance of aging real amiga hw.
Anyway the point is that now when a lot of people have been in a market for 8 years where amiga trademark holders have had no power over the hardware that has been on sale on our market, we have got used to the freedom of choice and "openess" of the hw market. At least I personally cannot think of a similar market anymore like it was in the commodore times, where every hw was in tight scrutiny of C=. That wouldn't work anymore anyway since it's 2002 now.
When amiga inc proposed their licencing scheme it caused a sudden rush of unease in me, because I was used to the "open" way that has flourished in the amiga market for the past 8 years. I was used seeing hw developers researching and developing for the market as they saw fit and without restrictions or licence schemes that force them into anything else. This has proved to be both good and bad as those people know who have had problems with their hardware repairings and customer services etc.
Suddenly along comes the new holder of amiga trademark and starts to claim control over the market with their new licence scheme. It has good aspects and it has bad aspects. Good aspects are what are claimed at amiga inc website. Bad aspects are what aren't covered, and that's the thing that was outlined above. Not just some of us users have got used to do whatever we like without having to fish around for anyone's concent but also the hw manufacturers have got used to create and sell their products as they please. Now that they have to adopt a licence and bundling scheme before they can sell hardware targeted at the new market, may cause some of them to think twice about the worthwhileness of the deal when comparing at the low sales of this miniscule market. Companies that have designed open hw that isn't tied strictly to amiga market may very well consider it as a not so warm welcome from our platform. At the moment we have only one licencee producing a board running OS4.
Anyway, my point is not who is licencing what and when, but it's more about why I think the licencing issue has caused so much split in the community and uproar from developers and users aswell. I personally feel that it's caused by the way people have got used to coding, soldering and selling their products without having to do anything special in between. Now that they are required to do so, it may feel odd and unececcary to some of them.
The article at osOpinion seemed to have more moot points than valid in my opinion but there were some...
Personally I get upset everytime when Ainc act as they were the saviours of amiga platform, when infact they have done nothing more than one sdk and a de player. All other work has been done by third party and by the sole iniative of those parties. The way I see it the only thing AI can be credited of are 2 little products that currently have even smaller community than we have.
I hope that will change in the future. |
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List of all comments to this article (continued) |
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