Look for a Pi Throw Near You!
on
Wednesday Is Pi Day
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· Score: 2, Informative
On a serious note, check out the website of your local Engineering school... a bunch (here in Canada anyway) have a Pi Throw on March 14th for charity. You pay $10, somebody gets a cream pie in the face (or, often, they can pay $20 to redirect said pie back to you). The proceeds usually support something worthwhile.
Even if OEMs were willing to offer the same non-disclosure agreements to Linux developers as they offer to Windows developers, with the understanding that these developers distribute binary-only drivers
Q: How are you going to write a GPL driver by signing an NDA? Is it going to require a binary blob or some other way of obfuscating the code?
A: No, not at all. I have written many drivers after signing NDAs with companies. They are usually signed either to keep information about the device private until it is announced at a specific date, or to just keep the actual specification documents from being released to the public directly. All code created by this NDA program is to be released under the GPL for inclusion in the main kernel tree, nothing will be obfuscated at all.
So there's a way to get free drivers, and now a major OEM wants to support Linux. Sounds like just the incentive that the "IP"-sensitive companies need. After all, Dell sells a lot of hardware.
If the quantum part of the system is only used to generate keys, A and B will end up with different keys (since the process doesn't just transmit keys, it's an integral part of generating them; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB84).
When A and B try to send data to each other over a (regular, higher-speed, non-quantum) link, they'll notice this pretty quickly.
Yeah, that's true... they might resort to binary blobs.
Still, at least it would work... that's better than the Dell laptop that I'm currently running (I've had it for almost a year, and the Memory Stick reader still has no Linux driver). The "I just want my e-mail" user won't re-install, but at least I have a hope (even if it is very hard).
Having the box come with Linux on it *is* a guarantee that the hardware works with Linux.
If I don't want RHEL, I can install the Linux I want. This way, I know that the hardware works, and there's no Microsoft tax.
It's still better than buying Windows.
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On a serious note, check out the website of your local Engineering school... a bunch (here in Canada anyway) have a Pi Throw on March 14th for charity. You pay $10, somebody gets a cream pie in the face (or, often, they can pay $20 to redirect said pie back to you). The proceeds usually support something worthwhile.
Somebody has never watched Firefly.
Nope. According to Greg Kroah-Hartman (the kernel dev who made the "we'll sign NDAs to write your drivers" offer):
Q: How are you going to write a GPL driver by signing an NDA? Is it going to require a binary blob or some other way of obfuscating the code?
A: No, not at all. I have written many drivers after signing NDAs with companies. They are usually signed either to keep information about the device private until it is announced at a specific date, or to just keep the actual specification documents from being released to the public directly. All code created by this NDA program is to be released under the GPL for inclusion in the main kernel tree, nothing will be obfuscated at all.
So there's a way to get free drivers, and now a major OEM wants to support Linux. Sounds like just the incentive that the "IP"-sensitive companies need. After all, Dell sells a lot of hardware.
If the quantum part of the system is only used to generate keys, A and B will end up with different keys (since the process doesn't just transmit keys, it's an integral part of generating them; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB84).
When A and B try to send data to each other over a (regular, higher-speed, non-quantum) link, they'll notice this pretty quickly.
Yeah, that's true... they might resort to binary blobs.
Still, at least it would work... that's better than the Dell laptop that I'm currently running (I've had it for almost a year, and the Memory Stick reader still has no Linux driver). The "I just want my e-mail" user won't re-install, but at least I have a hope (even if it is very hard).
Having the box come with Linux on it *is* a guarantee that the hardware works with Linux. If I don't want RHEL, I can install the Linux I want. This way, I know that the hardware works, and there's no Microsoft tax. It's still better than buying Windows.