Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-28 Thread Mark Smith

Andre van Zyl wrote:


On the contrary, Mark, right now I personally have a higher regard for
Thilo, who actually posted an opinion.


Dear Andre,

We are not at a popularity contest so it's not about having a higher 
regard for someone, but about technical facts ( -- eepc, documentation).


Nor is it only about having an opinion but about acts.
Acts speak more than words ( -- NDA's).
Do not only listen to what they preach. Look at what they do.

The topic is the fight against blobs.

Please Andre if you are so eager to come to the rescue of ignorant 
people, can you enlighten us on the merits of the eepc and the signing 
of NDA's in the fight against blobs ?


 All you've done is posted a typical fanboi response to Theo's reply 
to  Thilo. Who are you trying to impress?


You are entitled to your own opinion. I am not trying to impress anyone, 
I am actually trying to not participate in the spreading of lies and to 
not stay silent when it occurs.


That's why I always let know vendors why I *DID NOT* buy their products 
and tell them who got the money.
If more people would do that, to let companies know why they didn't get 
the money, things would change.
Instead people prefer to spread bullshits on mailing lists, but that's 
their right too.


Acts or *stronger* than opinions Andre.

Stop the blob. Do your part.


Regards,

Mark.



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-27 Thread Marco Peereboom
On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 07:17:34AM +0200, Thilo Pfennig wrote:
 Theo de Raadt schrieb:
 
 Hi Theo,
  I hope that nothing I ever say holds back our developers or community
  from doing what is right.  I did not realize that the GNU and Linux
  kernel hackers were such dutiful slaves.
 Well yeah, the system is called capitalism and many hackers behave like 
 slaves in this or another way.

No my friend it is the other way around.  GNU makes developers slaves to
their users.  In my world I develop code for me; if you like it good for
you; if you don't equally good for you.  I don't owe you anything.

Capitalism can only be enabled by the proper amount of freedom (actual
freedom, not what GNU calls freedom).  You are talking about people that
think there is morality in big words without living up to their side of
the bargain.

 
 
  If you see a fucked up system, do you want to fight it?  Or do you
  want to defend the people who don't fight it?  I think you are an
  apologist for those who don't fight the system.

 Many people see me rather as an open source dogmatist. Personally I am
 trying to get the big picture WITHOUT being a fanboy of ANY OS.

You are what I would call an OS intelligent design or creationist.
This is exactly the excuse they use too.

 

  And also, as you all know, open documentation has gone a long way
  till today.
  
 
  No.  Open documentation has NOT gone a long way at all. 
 I only know that no hardware I used had been supported and there was no
 documentation for it when I started running Linux - and that now many
 companies share their information, from companies who did not even know
 about FLOSS back then or would have declined to open source anything or
 share any information. So, sure there is still also a long way to go,
 but to say nothing has happened is also wrong and it would also mean
 that OpenBSD has not accomplished anything in that matter?
  You all think this is all about 2 kinds of video cards.  Video cards,
  video cards, video cards, video cards, video cards, video cards, video
  cards, video cards... cry cry cry.  what about all the rest of the
  things in a machine?

 I cited that because it was falsely stated that Linux hackers have never
 tried to change the situation and would do so now for the first time.
 They sure havent done enough,  or focused too much on only a few
 hardware bits like you pointed out. But that wasnt the point.

It is true; the best they have done is say, hey man can you guys please
help?, oh where do I sign?.  It is like most things GNU, lip service
without action.

  Where do you come up with this load of crap?  The eeepc has an
  UNDOCUMENTED ethernet chip and an UNDOCUMENTED wireless chip. 
 
 Actually I have to admit that I just assumed that that would be the
 case. I should have checked that.

Exactly, assumptions, assumptions, assumptions!  See you fit right in
with the other GNU fanboys that believe their spiritual leader: blah
blah blah without research.

  What a load of crap.  You don't know what you are talking about.
  Everything else you said is exactly the same blathering; you are
  trying to say happy Linux things but there are no facts to support
  that the Linux crew or FSF has done ANYTHING which has gotten
  documentation for hardware out there.  They have failed to use their
  dominant position to anyone else, and they have done a damn poor job
  of even supporting themselves.

 
 Just for the records: Does this mean that you either count documentation
 releases like AMDs,  as in fact NOTHING or  SOMETHING but has only
 happened because of OpenBSD?

That is it should be!  Why are you giving cookies to companies that do
what they are supposed to do?  And how long did it take for AMD to free
up docs?  And why?

Answer those questions and suddenly you'll see it wasn't out of the
goodness of their hearts.

 
 Also I thought Coreboot was a good idea. It is not?

Sure if you have 1 of the 2 supported motherboards.

 
  What did they do?  Linux developers and the companies that employ
  them have spend the last ten years signing NDAs with vendors, and
  therefore only that very small group of people have the documentation.
  It's not even lots of Linux developers who have those docs; no, in
  each case it is typically 1-3 developers who have docs for a particular
  chipset, and then when a bug is found by an outsider he has to work without
  docs.

 ACK
 
 
 It wasnt my intention to anger anybody, but obviously I did. As it turns
 out this is seen by some as not only a matter of truth but also
 something very emotional. What I basically was trying to say is that
 from my recognition this is not the first time Linux hackers have spoken
 up. I cant make any prove against the cases you have made because I have
 not investigated the matters in depth and it would take quite some time.

They pretend to speak up followed by no action.  In fact GNU fanboys
come to the rescue of closed source companies 

Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-27 Thread Thilo Pfennig

Marco Peereboom wrote:


Many people see me rather as an open source dogmatist. Personally I am
trying to get the big picture WITHOUT being a fanboy of ANY OS.


You are what I would call an OS intelligent design or creationist.
This is exactly the excuse they use too.


You funny, so there is only two options: Eitehr be a fanbox or if you 
arent thats the proof you are? How can somebody not be a fanboy then? I 
dont really get the intelligent design relation. Your reasoning sounds 
to me like the ones from conspiracy theorists that say that the denial 
of the government that UFOs exist is the proof that they exist.




Just for the records: Does this mean that you either count documentation
releases like AMDs,  as in fact NOTHING or  SOMETHING but has only
happened because of OpenBSD?


That is it should be!  Why are you giving cookies to companies that do
what they are supposed to do?  And how long did it take for AMD to free
up docs?  And why?

Answer those questions and suddenly you'll see it wasn't out of the
goodness of their hearts.


I suppose it took so long because AMD is paranoid like many companies. 
The interesting question in this thread would be why they did open up 
more at all. Because OpenBSD pushed them to do it? Please share your 
wisdom and tell me why they did it?



It was projects like OpenBSD that showed what bold faced liars they were
for them to change their ways.  It was action of the unfriendly kind
that got stuff done.  Get your facts straight.


In which cases?



Regards,

Thilo



--
Thilo Pfennig - PfennigSolutions IT-Beratung- Wiki-Systeme
Sandkrug 28 - 24143 Kiel (Germany)
http://www.pfennigsolutions.de/
XING: https://www.xing.com/profile/Thilo_Pfennig -
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tpfennig



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-27 Thread Mark Smith

Thilo Pfennig wrote:

The popularity of Linux has helped to create a
market that has better and more open documentation - and machines that
are made to work perfect with Linux (like eeepc) are more easily made to
work perfectly for OpenBSD and other free OSes.

Hehe, thanks for the good laugh !

Thilo you already look like a fool.
Please do yourself a favor and get some education before spreading 
bullshits on this list.

It's clear you don't know what you are talking about.

Regards,

Mark.



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-27 Thread bofh
On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 8:21 AM, Thilo Pfennig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 Marco Peereboom wrote:

  It was projects like OpenBSD that showed what bold faced liars they were
 for them to change their ways.  It was action of the unfriendly kind
 that got stuff done.  Get your facts straight.


 In which cases?


You will have to do some research, but it's in misc's archives.



-- 
http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
This officer's men seem to follow him merely out of idle curiosity. --
Sandhurst officer cadet evaluation.
Securing an environment of Windows platforms from abuse - external or
internal - is akin to trying to install sprinklers in a fireworks factory
where smoking on the job is permitted. -- Gene Spafford
learn french: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G-3laJJP0feature=related



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-27 Thread Andre van Zyl
 Hehe, thanks for the good laugh !
 
 Thilo you already look like a fool.

On the contrary, Mark, right now I personally have a higher regard for
Thilo, who actually posted an opinion. All you've done is posted a typical
fanboi response to Theo's reply to Thilo. Who are you trying to impress?  

 Please do yourself a favor and get some education before spreading
 bullshits on this list.
 It's clear you don't know what you are talking about.

Perhaps you would do well to heed your own advice...

-Andre



Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Lars Noodén
It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:

http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob

As the article points out, better late than never.

Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it
was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge.

Regards
-Lars



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Martin Schröder
2008/6/26 Lars Noodin [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:

http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob

 As the article points out, better late than never.

GPL'd drivers don't help much; some argue that they are part of the problem.
http://www.openbsd.org/papers/opencon06-docs/index.html

Best
   Martin



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Jeffrey 'jf' Lim
On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Lars Noodin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:

http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob

 As the article points out, better late than never.

 Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it
 was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge.


sorry - the final nudge to do what exactly? Stop the blob? Everybody should
listened a long time ago. I suppose it's good that the message has finally
come out now from the linux developers, but man... havent they let those
blobby fools (and we all know the most famous example) entrench themselves
already?

-jf

this has been my signature for like the longest time now... --

--
In the meantime, here is your PSA:
It's so hard to write a graphics driver that open-sourcing it would not
help.
-- Andrew Fear, Software Product Manager, NVIDIA Corporation
http://kerneltrap.org/node/7228



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Lars Noodén
Jeffrey 'jf' Lim wrote:

 sorry - the final nudge to do what exactly? 

Get off my backside and try working with OpenBSD.

-Lars



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Jacob Yocom-Piatt

Jeffrey 'jf' Lim wrote:

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Lars Noodin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

  

It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:

   http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob

As the article points out, better late than never.

Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it
was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge.




sorry - the final nudge to do what exactly? Stop the blob? Everybody should
listened a long time ago. I suppose it's good that the message has finally
come out now from the linux developers, but man... havent they let those
blobby fools (and we all know the most famous example) entrench themselves
already?

  



it will always be unpopular to have the right opinion at first, 
especially when it invalidates the work of others.


the cattle only go 'm!!' after they've been branded. 
serves them right. if you build it wrong they will come... hold on, that 
doesn't sound right...


cheers,
jake



-jf

this has been my signature for like the longest time now... --

--
In the meantime, here is your PSA:
It's so hard to write a graphics driver that open-sourcing it would not
help.
-- Andrew Fear, Software Product Manager, NVIDIA Corporation
http://kerneltrap.org/node/7228




Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Stuart Henderson
On 2008-06-26, Jeffrey 'jf' Lim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:

http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob

 As the article points out, better late than never.

 Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it
 was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge.


 sorry - the final nudge to do what exactly? Stop the blob? Everybody should
 listened a long time ago. I suppose it's good that the message has finally
 come out now from the linux developers, but man...

Many of them didn't think it through though.  Docs not drivers...



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Jeffrey 'jf' Lim
On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 9:57 PM, Martin Schrvder [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 2008/6/26 Lars Noodin [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
  It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more
 recognition:
 
 http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob
 
  As the article points out, better late than never.

 GPL'd drivers don't help much; some argue that they are part of the
 problem.
 http://www.openbsd.org/papers/opencon06-docs/index.html

 Best
Martin


this is good stuff, but... why'd u even mention GPL? I dont see any mention
of GPL in there.

-jf

--
In the meantime, here is your PSA:
It's so hard to write a graphics driver that open-sourcing it would not
help.
-- Andrew Fear, Software Product Manager, NVIDIA Corporation
http://kerneltrap.org/node/7228



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Thilo Pfennig
Lars NoodC)n schrieb:
 It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:

   http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob

 As the article points out, better late than never.

 Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it
 was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge.

 Regards
 -Lars

   
Sorrym but your are misguided. GNU and the Linux kernel hackers have
protested often over all the years. One thing that has holded them back
is that firstly Linus does not seem to care very much about the GNU
principles (but he cared so much to chose GNU license) - another thing
seems to be that many Linux kernel hackers work for companies that
understand their mission as to provide the customers with what they
want. And also, as you all know, open documentation has gone a long way
till today. For long years on many hardware parts free software was not
available.

Richard Stallman protested openly in 2006 more visible than OpenBSD did:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/rms-ati-protest.html

You are right that OpenBSD and Theo did make reoccuring demands over
many years and one could truely say that OpenBSD has always been more
determined and clear. If Linus would have been an advocate for free
software I am sure things would have been gone in a different direction.

Personally I believe all free operating systems have worked on the
change of the situation. The popularity of Linux has helped to create a
market that has better and more open documentation - and machines that
are made to work perfect with Linux (like eeepc) are more easily made to
work perfectly for OpenBSD and other free OSes.

There are different paths that are walked, but I remember there have
been a lot of quarrels with hardware vendors from the Linux kernel
hackers and often some hackers tried to establish a more strict policy.
My guess is that more Linux hackers today think that they have enough
drivers to push things forward and to use the power to indeed force
hardware vendors to comply. In the past users were more used to beg for
support and documentation and everything that was given - and if it only
where NVIDIA binary drivers where applauded as a great gift. But now
times are changing - maybe some hackers always thought like that but did
not believe in a possible success - but now they do. Linus could help
greatly if he would speak out in the same sense. I doubt he will,
because he is thinking more about practical aspects, which means he
seems to see a free license of the kernel as very important but also
thinks that if things work somehow, that is good enough and that forcing
the vendors might backlash somehow.

Regards,
Thilo


-- 
Thilo Pfennig - PfennigSolutions IT-Beratung- Wiki-Systeme
Sandkrug 28 - 24143 Kiel (Germany)
http://www.pfennigsolutions.de/
XING: https://www.xing.com/profile/Thilo_Pfennig -
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tpfennig



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Theo de Raadt
 Lars NoodC)n schrieb:
  It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition:
 
  http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob
 
  As the article points out, better late than never.
 
  Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it
  was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge.
 
  Regards
  -Lars
 

 Sorrym but your are misguided. GNU and the Linux kernel hackers have
 protested often over all the years. One thing that has holded them back
 is that firstly Linus

I hope that nothing I ever say holds back our developers or community
from doing what is right.  I did not realize that the GNU and Linux
kernel hackers were such dutiful slaves.

 does not seem to care very much about the GNU
 principles (but he cared so much to chose GNU license)

I -- and many of our team -- don't give a rats as about the GNU principles
either, and look how much more we have done.

 - another thing
 seems to be that many Linux kernel hackers work for companies that
 understand their mission as to provide the customers with what they
 want.

This other thing is actually the ONLY problem.  It is just business as
usual for the Linux wanna-be-monopoly.  It is that those people work
at companies that sign NDAs to get them documentation, and then noone
else gets the documentation.  Yes, they are already people of a
higher class, and then why would they spend even a second of their
time making the docs more free.  They feel so special and empowered to
be in the inner clique; so they don't fight a fucked up system.

If you see a fucked up system, do you want to fight it?  Or do you
want to defend the people who don't fight it?  I think you are an
apologist for those who don't fight the system.

 And also, as you all know, open documentation has gone a long way
 till today.

No.  Open documentation has NOT gone a long way at all.  Do you have
full Broadcom 100mb / gigabit ethernet documentation?  Do you have
Intel 100mb / gigabit ethernet chipset programming documentation?  Do
you have documentation for ANY wireless chipsets except the two or
three that we pressured to be free?  If you don't have documentation
for those, what do you have?  What is a long way for you?  Perhaps a
100 year plan?

 For long years on many hardware parts free software was not
 available.
 
 Richard Stallman protested openly in 2006 more visible than OpenBSD did:
 http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/rms-ati-protest.html

He cried, and nothing happened.  He cried, and then did no reverse
engineering.  He cried, and the only people who listened and agreed
are those who do nothing.

You all think this is all about 2 kinds of video cards.  Video cards,
video cards, video cards, video cards, video cards, video cards, video
cards, video cards... cry cry cry.  what about all the rest of the
things in a machine?

 You are right that OpenBSD and Theo did make reoccuring demands over
 many years and one could truely say that OpenBSD has always been more
 determined and clear. If Linus would have been an advocate for free
 software I am sure things would have been gone in a different direction.
 
 Personally I believe all free operating systems have worked on the
 change of the situation.

Personally I believe that all the other free operating systems added
together have worked MUCH LESS on this than we have.

 The popularity of Linux has helped to create a
 market that has better and more open documentation - and machines that
 are made to work perfect with Linux (like eeepc) are more easily made to
 work perfectly for OpenBSD and other free OSes.

Where do you come up with this load of crap?  The eeepc has an
UNDOCUMENTED ethernet chip and an UNDOCUMENTED wireless chip.  Of
course it works in Linux, because the ethernet vendor gave an
undocumented source code driver to the Linux vendors, and the wireless
vendor gave an undocumented BINARY driver to the Linux vendors, and oh
boy, that makes it all so good, and such a GREAT example.  No other PC
laptop selling today has more undocumented parts than this laptop.
Your example is so pathetic; it shows you have not a clue.  You are an
utter idiot.  The eeepc is an exact manifistation of the problem
coming round again.  One year ago we had complete support of every
major component in every laptop, and then voila, this Linux-based
laptop came out which required a LINUX BLOB.  You are a clueless
fanboy.

What a load of crap.  You don't know what you are talking about.
Everything else you said is exactly the same blathering; you are
trying to say happy Linux things but there are no facts to support
that the Linux crew or FSF has done ANYTHING which has gotten
documentation for hardware out there.  They have failed to use their
dominant position to anyone else, and they have done a damn poor job
of even supporting themselves.

Any documentation which is out there is because we pushed it out, or
some specific person or company decided to.  The FSF and Linux never

Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Greg Thomas
What a load of crap.  You don't know what you are talking about.
Everything else you said is exactly the same blathering; you are
trying to say happy Linux things but there are no facts to support
that the Linux crew or FSF has done ANYTHING which has gotten
documentation for hardware out there.  They have failed to use their
dominant position to anyone else, and they have done a damn poor job
of even supporting themselves.

That was my thought when reading his missive.  Not enough people in the
Linux community are concerned with anything other than popularity at this
point, popularity that is gained by catering to the masses with stuff that
supports their hardware whether it's secure and reliable or in most cases
not.

Greg
-- 
Support the Lo Desert Protosites:
http://lodesertprotosites.org

Dethink to survive - Mclusky



Re: Continuation of OpenBSD's Stop the Blob

2008-06-26 Thread Thilo Pfennig
Theo de Raadt schrieb:

Hi Theo,
 I hope that nothing I ever say holds back our developers or community
 from doing what is right.  I did not realize that the GNU and Linux
 kernel hackers were such dutiful slaves.
Well yeah, the system is called capitalism and many hackers behave like slaves 
in this or another way.


 If you see a fucked up system, do you want to fight it?  Or do you
 want to defend the people who don't fight it?  I think you are an
 apologist for those who don't fight the system.
   
Many people see me rather as an open source dogmatist. Personally I am
trying to get the big picture WITHOUT being a fanboy of ANY OS.

   
 And also, as you all know, open documentation has gone a long way
 till today.
 

 No.  Open documentation has NOT gone a long way at all. 
I only know that no hardware I used had been supported and there was no
documentation for it when I started running Linux - and that now many
companies share their information, from companies who did not even know
about FLOSS back then or would have declined to open source anything or
share any information. So, sure there is still also a long way to go,
but to say nothing has happened is also wrong and it would also mean
that OpenBSD has not accomplished anything in that matter?
 You all think this is all about 2 kinds of video cards.  Video cards,
 video cards, video cards, video cards, video cards, video cards, video
 cards, video cards... cry cry cry.  what about all the rest of the
 things in a machine?
   
I cited that because it was falsely stated that Linux hackers have never
tried to change the situation and would do so now for the first time.
They sure havent done enough,  or focused too much on only a few
hardware bits like you pointed out. But that wasnt the point.
 Where do you come up with this load of crap?  The eeepc has an
 UNDOCUMENTED ethernet chip and an UNDOCUMENTED wireless chip. 

Actually I have to admit that I just assumed that that would be the
case. I should have checked that.
 What a load of crap.  You don't know what you are talking about.
 Everything else you said is exactly the same blathering; you are
 trying to say happy Linux things but there are no facts to support
 that the Linux crew or FSF has done ANYTHING which has gotten
 documentation for hardware out there.  They have failed to use their
 dominant position to anyone else, and they have done a damn poor job
 of even supporting themselves.
   

Just for the records: Does this mean that you either count documentation
releases like AMDs,  as in fact NOTHING or  SOMETHING but has only
happened because of OpenBSD?

Also I thought Coreboot was a good idea. It is not?

 What did they do?  Linux developers and the companies that employ
 them have spend the last ten years signing NDAs with vendors, and
 therefore only that very small group of people have the documentation.
 It's not even lots of Linux developers who have those docs; no, in
 each case it is typically 1-3 developers who have docs for a particular
 chipset, and then when a bug is found by an outsider he has to work without
 docs.
   
ACK


It wasnt my intention to anger anybody, but obviously I did. As it turns
out this is seen by some as not only a matter of truth but also
something very emotional. What I basically was trying to say is that
from my recognition this is not the first time Linux hackers have spoken
up. I cant make any prove against the cases you have made because I have
not investigated the matters in depth and it would take quite some time.


Regards,

Thilo

PS: Although I got a full rant from you I  want to say that I have
always liked your standpoint against proprietary drivers and for open
documentation, which was one of the reasons to partly switch to OpenBSD,
because I also felt that Linux hackers did not do and say enough. Anyway.