[Arm-netbook] EOMA68 - linux and whatnot interview

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

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


On Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 5:56 PM, Muhammed Adel Afzal <adel at ncf.ca> wrote:
> Haha, got it
>
> Also, Chris Waid's origin story (as described by Luke in that video) is pretty interesting.

 yeahyeah - it's basically a foundation for practical "hassle-free"
computing.  the majority of people who see the FSF's writings hear
only the "conclusions", not the underlying reasons *why* the FSF
actually exists.  the "conclusions" are too far divorced - a long
logical step-by-step chain - from the underlying "cause" for them to
fully appreciate.  we therefore get "accusations" that it's a
"religious war" (just like we did with that scary guy only a few days
ago) when the truth is it's about "not causing yourself self-harm or
putting yourself to inconvenience or unanticipated expense".

 just to document this part of the video in words / text: chris is one
of those people who can do proper logical inference and analysis, who
is then prepared to take *action* based on that analysis.  in this
case he analysed linspire's business model (to become a windows-like
supplier of OEM gnu/linux-based OSes), concluded that it was hopeless
due to the lack of third party driver support in the linux kernel (due
to it being an "underdog" i.e. "not windows"), then from that formed a
business model to sell only stuff that *did* work.

 in the case of drivers, that means that libre firmware and so on can
just be packaged up "by default", so that things like "OS upgrades"
don't disconnect you from the internet half-way through the process
because the proprietary firmware wasn't compatible with the newer
kernel, and your printers and other really expensive hardware *keeps
working* and doesn't have to be thrown away just because you upgraded
an OS.

 so the business case is real simple: provide stuff that "just works",
doing the research for other people so that *they don't have to*.  i
remember buying 6 soft-modems in a row, 12 years ago, returning every
single one.  actual real monetary cost in travel time alone: ten times
that of the hardware.


 now, law of thermodynamics being what it is (entropy), providing
stuff that "just works" on an ongoing basis takes effort.  the
"default" which companies go back to is to do proprietary drivers.
chris worked for *two years* with one of the engineers inside qualcomm
to get the ath9k_htc firmware released, passing messages back and
forth.  it was a success... except then there was a total management
change, all the engineers, marketing people, managers and lawyers -
*everybody* went, which is why the business case for ath10k has to be
presented all over again if we want 802.11ac libre firmware from
qualcomm.

 so this needs to be dealt with *proactively*.  projects like this one
are a *proactive* response to the fact that the Intel Management
Engine runs RSA-signed proprietary firmware that cannot be trusted,
that manufacturers DRM-lock the WIFI card to the BIOS so that you're
*forced* to buy overpriced replacements - and many other things.

l.