Market Forces and Open Hardware
Let's not forget how the OSI Model lost out to TCP/IP model, because market forces went gnu linux -- cheaper to pay a geek to configure the license-free software than to pay for proprietary licensing. The market forces ruled the day.
Today, Risc-V has different licensing model than NVidia... how do we know which horse to back? I read the thread where avid pine64 supporters make a few valid criticisms of risc-v: just cause cpu is open, doesn't mean manufacturer will have all open components (but that's true of arm too), or that a downstream manufacturer can modify it, and then sell the modified version without open sourcing (well NVidia is already selling arm licenses, so this isn't any worse); or that it's riding the wave of open source popularity (That really isn't technical criticism at all, and sounds like something to say when you don't have any criticism).
Perhaps, in addition to being open, the Risc-V ISA may be better from assembly programmers' pov, if it is more elegantly organized and therefore simpler.
I see that pine64 has a risc-v soldering pinecil already using RiscV (but out-of-stock, of course--this "of course" is a bad rep to have in a market driven world.
I think that finding open hardware, installing linux, creating safe firewall, connecting to openvpn, etc, is too complicated for the average family. So I want to do it for them. My end game is provisioning my local home school community with open-hardware devices running slackware ported to the architecture of said devices, connecting to openvpn, and running services that help the community collaborate safely, and which protect the students from inappropriate content. And I'm getting older and don't want to wait. The students are not adequately protected with what they are currently using, and they're getting older too quickly. (I overheard a five year old talking to his mom's android phone: "Is the tooth fairy real?" -- that child needs safe results, or s/he's gonna grow up too fast)
Market forces do play a factor, such that whichever open hardware provider gets a product widely available (and not just for developers, and sneak previews) first will get the market share, from developers like me waiting to do stuff with it. Pine64's "out of stock" thing is admirable from the point of view of keeping pinebook pros affordable--but if last year changed the law of supply and demand, I would prefer that pine64 outbid the competition on lots of 1080 pixel lcds, and keep production going, even if it meant raising the price. That way, the community can survive. I've heard lots of demands here for empathy for the developers and the non-profit nature of pine64 -- and I have it, and will be feeling for them if my dollar goes another way because that other way meets my end game first.
But there's also a certain level of professionalism expected of any organization: why have this contact page, if emails to sales@pine64.org won't receive responses (not even an auto-response)? Lack of responses, even during shortages of lcds, will turn developers and prospective assets to the pine64 community away.
Thus, let's not repeat OSI Model's quest for perfection, because, as they learned, the market doesn't wait. I'm pretty sensitive. I think pine64 needs a wakeup call , and this is it.
Today, Risc-V has different licensing model than NVidia... how do we know which horse to back? I read the thread where avid pine64 supporters make a few valid criticisms of risc-v: just cause cpu is open, doesn't mean manufacturer will have all open components (but that's true of arm too), or that a downstream manufacturer can modify it, and then sell the modified version without open sourcing (well NVidia is already selling arm licenses, so this isn't any worse); or that it's riding the wave of open source popularity (That really isn't technical criticism at all, and sounds like something to say when you don't have any criticism).
Perhaps, in addition to being open, the Risc-V ISA may be better from assembly programmers' pov, if it is more elegantly organized and therefore simpler.
I see that pine64 has a risc-v soldering pinecil already using RiscV (but out-of-stock, of course--this "of course" is a bad rep to have in a market driven world.
I think that finding open hardware, installing linux, creating safe firewall, connecting to openvpn, etc, is too complicated for the average family. So I want to do it for them. My end game is provisioning my local home school community with open-hardware devices running slackware ported to the architecture of said devices, connecting to openvpn, and running services that help the community collaborate safely, and which protect the students from inappropriate content. And I'm getting older and don't want to wait. The students are not adequately protected with what they are currently using, and they're getting older too quickly. (I overheard a five year old talking to his mom's android phone: "Is the tooth fairy real?" -- that child needs safe results, or s/he's gonna grow up too fast)
Market forces do play a factor, such that whichever open hardware provider gets a product widely available (and not just for developers, and sneak previews) first will get the market share, from developers like me waiting to do stuff with it. Pine64's "out of stock" thing is admirable from the point of view of keeping pinebook pros affordable--but if last year changed the law of supply and demand, I would prefer that pine64 outbid the competition on lots of 1080 pixel lcds, and keep production going, even if it meant raising the price. That way, the community can survive. I've heard lots of demands here for empathy for the developers and the non-profit nature of pine64 -- and I have it, and will be feeling for them if my dollar goes another way because that other way meets my end game first.
But there's also a certain level of professionalism expected of any organization: why have this contact page, if emails to sales@pine64.org won't receive responses (not even an auto-response)? Lack of responses, even during shortages of lcds, will turn developers and prospective assets to the pine64 community away.
Thus, let's not repeat OSI Model's quest for perfection, because, as they learned, the market doesn't wait. I'm pretty sensitive. I think pine64 needs a wakeup call , and this is it.
