04-18-2016, 05:45 AM
(04-17-2016, 08:17 PM)MichaelMeissner Wrote:I know this is open source, but perhaps desperate times needs desperate solutions.(04-17-2016, 01:18 PM)peterz Wrote: What about signing Non Disclosure Agreement? Would be that an option?Ummm, in general, you can't sign a NDA and contribute to an open source project based on information in the NDA, since your code would violate the NDA. Of course, it really depends on the exact NDA.
Time limited NDA's that are used before a chip is shipping and you agree not to put in code to public sources until until it is shipping is perhaps doable. But the Allwinner chips are shipping now, and any time limit would mean users would have to wait for a fix until the time limit expires.
For example, I work for an employer adding GCC support for their processors, and I have signed various NDAs for what is in future machines. However, I can't contribute code for that new machine until it has been announced. On the GCC side, there are windows where you can contribute new features, and windows where you concentrate on fixing bugs (right now, we are in such a window), so my team has to concentrate on getting things announced and released in a timely fashion. This way NDAs can work with open source projects. But there has to be a timeout to allow things to be contributed.
