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

On Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 4:34 PM, Muhammed Adel Afzal adel@ncf.ca wrote:

Luke said that the computer card, running 1 gig (instead of 2 gigs, which the final product will have) runs LibreOffice, Firefox, Chrome, Gimp, terminal, few games, and there is still space (ram?) available.

Sounds like it runs those things together OK -- cool

just don't open 200 tabs in firefox, or try opening 30 libreoffice documents with 500 pages each, and you'll be fine.

l.

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

On Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 5:56 PM, Muhammed Adel Afzal adel@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.