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Proprietary Parts in OLPC Project Draw Criticism

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-entirely-open dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Jem Report is running a story about the recent controversy surrounding the hardware used in OLPC laptops. Some devices require NDA's to write drivers, and some parts require firmware that cannot be freely redistributed. Richard Stallmann and Theo de Raadt oppose the use of such devices. Jim Getty defends OLPC's choice (de Raadts response). Jem Matzan has interviewed all sides and published the answers."

2 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Theo's right by c0d3h4x0r · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Theo's absolutely right. The masses depend on OSS developers to maintain the drivers when a device manufacturer drops the ball (which they always do at some point), and the developers need complete device documentation to do that right.

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  2. I'd also like to note... by jg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That much of the silicon we're building *hasn't even taped out yet* (we're testing FPGA versions before they become ASIC's right now). Yet open source drivers for the hardware are already publically available (e.g. NAND driver, camera driver, SD driver).
                                                        - Jim Gettys