Is the ARM archetecture suitable for Free Software?
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I have been looking at the latest beagle boards and Panda Boards from Texas Instruments! Since the ARM design is licensed by Arm, is it ethical to use licensed and restrictive hardware for a Free Software OS? I was considering selling an ARM based Mini ITX computer on Ebay or something.
It would be loaded with the latest release of Trisquel Mini. Included would be "Free Software, Free Society" and "Free as in Freedom (v2)", as well as two T-shirts, a stuffed GNU and the OS CD I would donate half the proceeds to the Free Software Foundation, and other Free Software projects like Trisquel! Any ideas are welcome!
In what way is the ARM hardware restrictive? As far as I know, as long as the software running on it is free, the hardware isn't really an issue. I don't see why there would be a problem.
That being said, I'm pretty sure there isn't an ARM version of Trisquel. I think Debian supports ARM though; you could try installing Debian on it. The latest version uses a libre kernel. As long as you don't use the "non-free" repository, it should be okay.
It has been hinted to me that there is an ARM version of Trisquel is in development.
What I meant, akirashinigami, is that Texas Instruments needed to get a license to make their ARM based chips. Since the Arm architecture is proprietary and its Instruction Sets, is it ethical to use it on a Free Software project?
I believe you are mixing up "proprietary", which is related to the copyright law, and "patented", which is related to, well, the patent law. Although software patents are an absurdity, it may not be (is not?) the case of patents on manufactured products such as chips. I mean such time-limited monopolies may really motivate innovation in this field.
As far as I know it is the Linux kernel that runs on top of most ARM processors. I believe that the companies building the chips are those that contribute the GPL-licensed code to take advantage of them. How could the situation be better?
I was wondering if you could describe the specifications of the machine
you are wanting to build. I'm guessing it will be some kind of a netbook
right? Could you tell me also if it will support core boot?
El jue, 09-06-2011 a las 02:59 +0200, name at domain escribió:
> I have been looking at the latest beagle boards and Panda Boards from Texas
> Instruments! Since the ARM design is licensed by Arm, is it ethical to use
> licensed and restrictive hardware for a Free Software OS? I was considering
> selling an ARM based Mini ITX computer on Ebay or something.
>
> It would be loaded with the latest release of Trisquel Mini. Included would
> be "Free Software, Free Society" and "Free as in Freedom (v2)", as well as
> two T-shirts, a stuffed GNU and the OS CD I would donate half the proceeds
> to the Free Software Foundation, and other Free Software projects like
> Trisquel! Any ideas are welcome!
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