[Arm-netbook] eoma68-project

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

wolfgang, hi, i ran this one through google translate:
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/fsfe-de/2016-July/008455.html

whilst i can reply cc to marcus directly, what i cannot do is reply
into the conversation at the right point in the thread (because i am
not subscribed, and gmane is now gone... argh!) - could i ask you to
forward this on, on my behalf?

 marcus, you wrote (in german):

> The proposed processor comes from Allwinner.  This manufacturer
> is only known for a variety of GPL violations.

>  Personally, I would therefore rather refrain from support of the project.

you're wrong about the GPL violations on the A20, although i can fully
understand the misunderstanding.  but that's beside the point: the
alternatives are much *much* worse.  would you prefer that we used a
processor that was DRM-locked?  or that had Treacherous Zone?  or that
had a back-door co-processor that could do arbitrary remote
code-execution without your knowledge?  or that booted up from
proprietary DRM-locked arbitrary signed AND ENCRYPTED bootloaders
either from the GPU or from the main CPU itself?

all of these processors exist with *all* of the above absolutely
terrible and totally unethical designs *BUILT IN*.

by total contrast, the Allwinner A20 is:

(a) "unbrickable".  it was designed this way so that there is
**ABSOLUTELY NO WAY** that any accidental application of DRM by an
incompetent China OEM could "lock" the product containing an A20 by
mistake.  turns out that this is perfect for ensuring that people can
upload their own OS.

(b) entirely GPL-compliant.  this has taken a *LOT* of work by the
software libre community, pressurising allwinner and carrying out
reverse-engineering over many years.  to say "i will refrain from
support of the project" is therefore, if i may be absolutely blunt,
quite disrespectful to the people who's hard work in the linux-sunxi
community has brought you this OPPORTUNITY to completely own your own
hardware, free from spyware.

the situation with allwinner is complex.  there are many extremely
powerful investors who in Chinese Society are "above the pay-grade" of
the Directors in terms of China "Social Status".  this is causing them
huge problems internally, despite the **DIRECT** wishes of the Vice
President!

it is a very strange situation that could really only happen in china.
far from ostracising and boycotting them, we need instead to *BUY*
products that are GPL-compliant, so that the Vice President has a way
to say, "look, these products are fully compliant with the GPL and
they're SELLING REALLY WELL".

if you boycott the entire company, that actually fucks up everything
i'm trying to achieve, and actually DESTROYS any opportunity to
introduce software freedom.

l.

---
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 8:33 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
<lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
> http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/fsfe-de/2016-July/008504.html
>
> yay found the fsfe-de archives, these are actually really hard to
> find, they're not listed publicly and can't be found with a google
> search.
>
> l.