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Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware
From: |
Richard Stallman |
Subject: |
Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware |
Date: |
Tue, 25 Jan 2022 22:39:18 -0500 |
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> Then let me be clear. By "free hardware" I mean that the following is
> available under a free license:
> * Gerber files for circuit boards
> * Boardview / gerber / design files
> * Verilog files for making your own versions of each chip
> * Built-in firmwares on chips must also be free. E.g. bootroms
A gerber file alone is not adequate as source code for a circuit; it
is more like compiled code. But assuming that the "design files" are
the source code, then I think this is a coherent definition of "free
hardware". I agree that all hardware ought to be free in this sense,
some day. https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html talks
about this, and why it's too much to insist on for the short term.
But many people say "free hardware" and they mean something very
different, a much less stringent criterion. They mean "comes with the
specs needed to write free software for it". I don't think that is
enough to merit the term "free hardware". What can we call it?
> (this last one is something that the FSF currently provides exceptions
> for in RYF)
I just modified https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html to better
explain why we make this exception, why for the time being we must.
Also how to keep it honest.
--
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, (continued)
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Richard Stallman, 2022/01/24
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Leah Rowe, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Leah Rowe, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Thomas Lord, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Richard Stallman, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Jean Louis, 2022/01/26
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Jacob Hrbek, 2022/01/26
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Jacob Hrbek, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Leah Rowe, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Leah Rowe, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware,
Richard Stallman <=
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Paul Sutton, 2022/01/26
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Pen-Yuan Hsing, 2022/01/26
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Jacob Hrbek, 2022/01/26
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Richard Stallman, 2022/01/28
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Matt Ivie, 2022/01/24
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Paul Sutton, 2022/01/24
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Richard Stallman, 2022/01/24
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Leah Rowe, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Leah Rowe, 2022/01/25
- Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware, Matt Ivie, 2022/01/25