| [Rant] osopinion: Close That Open Hardware! | ANN.lu |
| Posted on 12-Jun-2002 00:21 GMT by sutro | 169 comments
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A rather unispired article at best. Read
here for more.
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| osopinion: Close That Open Hardware! : Comment 93 of 169 | ANN.lu |
| Posted by Janne Sirén on 13-Jun-2002 11:22 GMT | In reply to Comment 88 (Samface):
>I've told you several times why I don't approve of the petition. It's because
>it states that:
That's better. Lets address the issues instead of calling the whole thing FUD. It may have some content to it that could be adjusted and now we can discuss that. That is great. But lets drop the FUD part, it was clearly not meant as such, is not mistaken in its basic principles (if you agree with at least point 1 of mine in 37, which Bill stated clearly) and even though we find something to correct in it - and by all means, lets do so! - that doesn't invalidate it (unless we find something really wrong in its basics, nothing has been pointed out yet with reasonable argumentation).
>This whole statement is pure FUD and nothing but FUD because:
Oh c'moon. FUD this, FUD that. More abused term soon than "troll". The statement may have some mistakes in it, and those we can address quite nicely thank you. But that doesn't make it "pure FUD and nothing but FUD". You are SO misunderstanding the basic premise of the petition. That premise is very admirable even if we find something wrong in its execution.
>1. AmigaOS4 will only run on Amiga specific PPC hardware, POP has never been
>mentioned as the hardware for AmigaOS4, *ever*. Sure, Eyetech has made one
>AmigaOne moterboard based on a POP design but that has nothing to do with the
>hardware compatibility policies by Amiga Inc. for AmigaOS4, period.
Ok. I can appreciate that. Doesn't change the basic premise of the petition though, or anything else for the matter. One can still disagree with this decision even if they made it in the very beginning.
>2. Eyetech, Elbox, Matay and Merlancia Industries are all making or planning
>to make AmigaOS4 compatible hardware. The statement claims that *noone* is
>doing so which is simply one big lie.
AmigaOS compatible hardware is way different than anyone making an "Amiga". You seem to associate "Amiga" with AmigaOS 4.x compatible hardware, whereas the maker of the petition (or myself for that matter) clearly does not. "Amiga" used to be proprietary hardware, and in the foreseeable future it clearly will not be ever again. It is a proprietary software running on standard hardware. Whether or not this hardware should be licensed or not is what this petition is all about.
Lets dissect the statement you call pure FUD and nothing but FUD:
>AmigaOS4 will run on POP-based ("PowerPC Open Platform") motherboards (and old
Okay, possible mistake in saying AmigaOS4 will run on POP boards. It may run on others as well. As far as I know all proposed hardware platforms for it at this time are POP boards, though, but perhaps you are right - perhaps something else will be introduced. I'd call this a very minor problem with the petition and does base on the fact that the first AmigaOnes talked about by Amiga have all been POP boards (bplan was mentioned in the beginning as well). Correct me if I'm wrong, but so is SharkPPC as well? Some IBM reference design?
Nor does the fact that someone would introduce some other PPC platform than POP in anyway invalidate the petition, in fact, it only strenghtens its point if we think of all PPC hardware instead of just POP. People like Apple are never going to give the specs or apply for a license to run AmigaOS, but if AmigaOS could still be run on it that could be nice. Just an example.
>68k Amigas with various PPC expansions/accelerators) and the first
This is clearly correct and confirmed by Bill's executive update.
>motherboards said to be supported are clones of the motherboards that Mai uses >for its TeronCX "evaluation board", like the boards Eyetech are distributing
>using the licensed trademark "AmigaOne G3-SE".
Clearly correct and confirmed by various sources. Even if they are not the same board, the first AmigaOne is clearly based on TeronCX.
>Amiga Inc. does not and will not design, make or distribute any hardware at
>all.
Correct. Bill has said this on many occasions. They are a software company. Period.
>Nobody makes or is planning to make any "Amiga", i.e. a hardware platform
>meant to run AmigaOS. The Amiga hardware died in the commercial sense the day
>Commodore stopped their Amiga R&D.
Okay, possible mistake there. The Classic R&D ended with ESCOM. But that is HARDLY relevant or enough to call it FUD. No way. Also, no one is really planning to make an Amiga. That is true. Even the AmigaOne is based on someone elses design and SharkPPC is an expansion. The Amiga as we used to know it, custom made hardware, is long gone and that is very clear to anyone following the Amiga market. New hardware is based on standard parts and mostly standard designs, and that is what this sentence conveys.
>AmigaOS users will have their hardware and hardware vendor options
>unnecessarily restricted.
Clearly true. Of course the unnecessarily part is an opinion the undersigned share. Whether or not licensing is necessary is really an opinion at this time, technology-wise it is not and that is the point the petition makes.
>Why would it be more restrictive to the users hardware options when this
>license enables *any* PPC hardware manufacturer/distributors to get AmigaOS4
>support instead of just POP based hardware?
Because instead of only facing the technology-barrier, Amiga adds to it by requiring licensing and OEM bundling of the OS. This adds to the restriction to get the OS running on any board. Without licensing restrictions, R&D would only need technical data.
Now there is the added (and by the way NOT trivial) task of getting someone to agree on the responsibilities required by Amiga Inc. Many non-Amiga vendors will not - so the petition undersigned believe, as I see it - be interested and thus this will create an unnecessary - again, so the undersigned believe - barrier in getting AmigaOS to run on wider range of hardware.
>AmigaOS and its users have already lost two significant hardware options only
>because of this policy.
>FUD! Amiga Inc. had support from the previously mentioned Amiga specific
>hardware manufacturers before this license came along while they have *never*
>had support from bPlan or the Barbie developer. The license hasn't affected
>the situation for the AmigaOS users at all.
That is debatable, but clearly the wording in the petition is rather strong on that one. I probably would've toned it down a bit, more on the lines "AmigaOS and its users may have already...". But FUD, naah. Thendic has already said they will support anyone willing to go for AmigaOS support but they are not doing it themselves because they are not interested in this license deal. I'm not familiar with the Barbie situation, so I can't comment that.
If this is why you call the petition FUD I would suggest you to reconsider. It has way more merits than possible poor wordings.
>I could go on like forever
The age old "there's infinitely more but I won't tell you" argument is really getting old. Please lets debate the specifics.
I still strongly believe there is merit in the overall debate the petition is raising. Amiga Inc. are adding an obstacle to hardware compatibility with this licensing policy. Those who believe this obstacle is unnecessary, do sign. Those who believe the obstacle is necessary (there are certainly arguments for it as well, like the ones listed by Amiga Inc.), don't.
I haven't signed anything, yet I'm interested how many will. |
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