[squeak-dev] open source hardware (was: would it be fun to implement Squeak (and SPOON!) on this hardware?)

Jecel Assumpcao Jr. jecel at merlintec.com
Mon Dec 23 17:07:52 UTC 2013


Doug Jones wrote:
> [...]
> - completely open source hardware, not very expensive, and practical for 
> a hobbyist board builder as well as mass production

Wouldn't it be better to use the term "open source software friendly
hardware" instead of "open source hardware" for this? It seems that the
Free Software Foundation adopted the term "Respects Your Freedom" (RYF)
for the first hardware they have ever certified:

> http://www.fsf.org/news/gluglug-x60-laptop-now-certified-to-respect-your-freedom

It certainly seems very odd to call anything with an ARM or Intel
processor "open source hardware". If we do that, then what would we call
something like:

http://opencores.org/donation

?

Note that the low amount that has been pledged so far ($22K) shows how
little people actually value this kind of thing no matter what they say.
Of course, if they had gone with Kickstarter instead of their own
(obscure) web site they might have had a far better result, so perhaps I
am reading too much into this.

-- Jecel
p.s.: the binary for the Linux version of the Little Smalltalk 3 VM is
only 55KB with everything statically linked in



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